4 ART. 7. — K. KINOSHIÏA : ON SOME MÜRICEID CORALS 



Brasilian coast. Tlie essential characteristics of this singular genus 

 and species are as follows : Coral free, thread-like, simple, with 

 rounded ends ; axis horny ; cortex formed of fusiform spicules 

 placed closely side by side ; polyp-cells alternate, short, broad, 

 conical, covered with spicules as the stem. 



In the Challenger Report, Wright and Studer described a 

 species, Elasmogoi'gia filiformis, which comes very near to Gray's 

 species above mentioned. But owing to the fact that his de- 

 scription was not satisfactory enough for identification and that 

 his type specimen had been lost, they called their specimen 

 Elasmogorgia (previously Elasma), avoiding Gray's generic name 

 Filigella. Quite recently Nutting has reported from the east 

 Pacific two colonies determined to be Elasmogorgia filiformis. 



A third species, Elasmogorgia ßexilis, was added to the 

 genus by Hickson. Two of the twelve specimens examined by him 

 were provided with a small disc for attachment. 



The peculiar character of the colony described by Gray, 

 namely, that its both ends showed no sign of attachment or insertion 

 into the sand, which fact was doubted by Wright and Studer, 

 reajDpears in the complete specimens before me, both their ends 

 having growing points as already described. That the coral is 

 neither a creeping nor a climbing form, is proved by the f\ict that 

 the polyp-cells are found entirely surrounding the stem. At the 

 same time, since the majority of my specimens have broken ends, 

 the possibility that under circumstances the species may be attached 

 to some foreign body cannot be excluded. Possibly it may be 

 that the character of the base differs in difierent colonies of the 

 same species. 



Since Gray's Eiligella was established with a fairly satis- 

 factory description and also with illustrations, this name has the 



