BELONGING TO THE GENERA FILIGELLA AND AGIS. 11 



The colony is about 70 cm. higli and 50 cm. broad ; 

 it is branched in one plane. Since the specimen has been 

 kept in a small box, several of the branches are distorted as 

 seen in fig. 4. The basal stem measures 2 cm. by 1.5 cm. and 

 is flattened in the plane perpendicular to that of the branches. 

 The thicker branches are also compressed in the same way, while 

 the terminal twigs are nearly cylindrical. The branching is 

 pinnate, very rarely dichotomous. The angle and distance be- 

 tween two successive branches vary very much. 



The axis is horny and wholly devoid of lime. Its thicker 

 parts are blackish and the terminal parts dirty brown; it is 

 considerably shrunk as the result of desiccation. The basal part 

 is entirely horny and lamellar. 



The polyp-cells and cœnenchyma are, as already mentioned, 

 preserved only in the terminal parts of the colony. The 

 polyp-cells are found solely on one side of the branches. The 

 other side of the branches is covered with a complete armour of 

 scaly spicules (PI. I., fig, 6 and PI. II., fig. 17). The polyp-cells 

 are arranged in two or more (often as many as five) subalternate 

 irregular rows, and are usually closely set, though often leaving 

 short intervals between adjacent cells (PI. I., fig. 5). They are 

 wart-like, measuring 1.5 mm. in both diameter and height. 



The polyp-cells are covered with thick scaly spicules, gen- 

 arally arranged in eight regular longitudinal rows, just as in the 

 case of some Primnoids (PI. II., figs. 17, 18). The number of 

 the scales in one longitudinal row is from two to four. Fig. 18 

 shows a typical polyp-cell seen en face. The lower scales are so 

 firmly packed together that they do not seem to separate from 

 one another, when the polyps are expanded ; while the upper 

 four, or sometimes all the eight scales, are loosely jointed, bending 



