MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 35 



ject from the surface as small spinules. Calicles short-cylindrical or verruci- 

 form, armed at summit by a circle of short projecting spinules, which are 

 formed by the distal ends of large spicula having a large, irregular, flattened, 

 usually lobed or branched basal portion ; sides of calicles with rough spicula, 

 part of them irregular and flattened. Bases of contracted tentacles form eight 

 triangular, convergent lobes, hlled with spicula arranged in chevron ; a circle 

 of curved transverse spicula surround the bases of these tentacular lobes. 



This genus is a very characteristic one, in somewhat deep water, in all parts 

 of the North Atlantic and in the Mediterranean. A large number of speci- 

 mens, belonging to several species, were taken by the Blake in the Carib- 

 bean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, in 1877-79. Some of these are allied to our 

 Northern forms, and are therefore included here. Some of the species that 

 have formerly been referred to Acanthocjorgia belong properly to Paramuricea. 

 Among these are the following : — 



Paramuricea Grayi (Johnson sp., 1861). Off Madeira. 



Paramuricea Atlantica (Johnson sp., 1862). Off Madeira. 



Paramuricea hirta (Pourtale.-; sp., 1867). Off Cuba. 



Paramuricea borealis Verrill. 



Paramuricea boredis Verrill, Araer. Jour. Sci., XVI., 1878, p. 213; XXIV., 1882, 



p. 3G4. 



Plate III. Figs. 4, 5, 6 a. 



The original specimen of this species was small, with a low, bushy growi;h. 

 Subsequently a considerable number of examples have been obtained, of larger 

 size and taller growth, but agreeing in the form and arrangement of the cali- 

 cles, and in the spicula. 



When well developed this species grows in a somewhat flabellate form, the 

 branches several times forking and having a tendency to lie in one plane. The 

 larger branches diverge rather abruptly at their origin, and then ascend in a 

 curve ; the smaller branches and branchlets are widely divergent, or divari- 

 cate, often spreading at right angles. The branches are rather distant, not 

 very numerous, often crooked, and decidedly slender in most specimens, but 

 in a few examples they are stouter than usual, and not unfrequently they are 

 larger near the tips and have the calicles more numerous there, while over the 

 branches generally they are usually distant, leaving much of the ccenenchyma 

 bare. Occasionally they are closer than usual over most of the branches, giv- 

 ing them a stouter appearance. 



The calicles (Fig. 5) are short, stout, cylindrical verrucse, about as broad as 

 high, crowned by a marginal circle of about eight short but acute spines, with 

 a few other similar ones around the upper part, below the margin, but not ex- 

 tending far down the sides, so that the lower part of the calicles is not spinose, 

 or only very slightly so. The calicles are composed of variously shaped, ir- 

 regular, rough-edged spicula, mostly rather small, below the marginal spines. 



