PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 199 



by transverse lines of white; tbe central dark line is sometimes absent; 

 column translucent, dull gray or grayish white, striped with narrow 

 flake- white lines, between which the dark internal organs show through ; 

 a circle of lunate si)ots of opaque yellowish white is situated just below 

 the tentacles, corresponding with the broad longitudinal stripes. Disk 

 often much protruded, yellowish white, radiated with opaque white. 



Provincetown, Mass., in sand, at low-water (U. S. Fish Commission, 

 1879). 



Anthothela, gen. nov. 



This generic division is proposed for the Briareum grandiflorum (Sars) 

 and allied species. It is related to Briareum and Faragorgia in having 

 a soft spiculose axis, but its polyp -cells are prominent and permaneutly 

 exsert, and the polyps themselves are not entirely retractile. The ccen- 

 enchyma is thin, and often spreads out irregularly over foreign bodies 

 or around the base, as an encrustation. 



Anthothela grandiflora (Sara) Verrill. 



Briareum (jrandifloriim Sars, Fauna Litt. Norvegiae, p. 63, pi. 10, fig. 10-12. 

 This species has been obtained in several instances by the Gloucester 

 halibut fishermen in deep water, off Nova Scotia, and presented to the 

 U. S. Fish Commission. It was first obtained by Capt. N. McPhee and 

 crew, of the schooner " Carl Schurz," off Sable Island. 



Halipteris Christii (Koren and Dan.) Kolliker. 



A single specimen of a species of Halipteris, which is, perhaps, iden- 

 tical with the above species, although difiering somewhat from the 

 descriptions and figures of the Norwegian form, has been presented to the 

 U. S. Fish Commission by Capt. Thos. F. Hodgdon and crew, of the 

 schooner "Bessie W. Somes," from the Grand Bank. 



Alcyonium digitatum Linne (?). 



Two specimens, which I refer very doubtfully to this species, were 

 taken by Captain Greenwood and crew, of the schooner "Sultana," in 80 

 fathoms, on Clark's Bank, east of Cape Cod. 



They form low, thick, lobular masses, with the polyps scattered over 

 the entire surface, except at the very base, and everywhere showing 

 the coenenchyma between them. The base is somewhat spreading, and 

 there is no main trunk, for the division into rounded or flattened lobes 

 takes place close to the base, and they again subdivide, so that a group 

 of short, thick, obtuse lobes, jiartly rounded and partly flat, results. 

 The polyps are rather larger than in A. carneum, and some are retracted 

 into the cells that are scattered over the coenenchyma, and others more 

 or less expanded; toward the summits of the lobes they are more 

 numerous, but not crowded. The surface of the cceneucliyma, under a 

 lens, shows a granular api^earance, due to the small white spicula. 



If not identical with A. digitatum of Europe, it is at least very closely 



