BULLETIN 59, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 57 



symmetry in the form of the corallum and septal arrangement. In another specimen there are 248 

 septa. The faces of the septa are covered with fine-pointed graimles. There it* a deep elongate, hut 

 narrow, fossa well (illed up at its bottom by columellar outgrowth, from Flabeltura paronniuni, Fluhel- 

 luin patens differs in having its faces less smooth than tlu^ former and in having more septa. 



Extreme height of the calicle of a large specimen, 43 mm. ICxtrcme lireadth of the calicle, 

 55 mm. Shorter diameter of the calicle, 28 mm. — Moseley, 1881. 



jFlabdluiu australe Moseley, 1881: 



The adult corallum is very large, dense, and heavy. It is in the form of a compressed wedge, 

 triangular in outline. The lateral costiK make with one another an angle of from 70° to 90°. The 

 surfaces of the faces are smooth and glistening, of a brownish color, marked with evenly curved trans- 

 verse accretion lines, sometimes with numerous very fine costal markings all over, sometimes with 

 only a few obscure primary and secondary ridges near the base. There is a distinct short cylindrical 

 pedicle. Tlie lateral cost;e are sharj) and rough-edged, somewhat jagge<l. They usually cease toward 

 the margin of the calicle, where the angles of the corallum arc evenly rounded off. The form of the 

 mouth of the calicle is extremely elongate and narrow, the ratio of the two axes being about as 100 to 

 40. The suirmiits of the shorter axis of the calicle are somewhat higher than those of the longer axis, 

 and the upper borders of the faces are evenly curved, with smooth edges. The septa are white, con- 

 trasting in color with the brown wall of the calicle. They are stout and straight, and covered with 

 fine-pointed granules on their faces. All the septa are very low near the margin of the calicle, to 

 which they do not quite extend, a narrow zone of bare calicular margin being present all round the 

 mouth of the calicle. It appears therefore as if their free borders were, so to speak, cut away close 

 to the calicular margin. The curved free edges of the principal septa bend over and descend nearly 

 vertically to bound the fossa, which is extremely narrow, deep, and long. There are in one adult 

 specimen, that figured, 48 complete septa sensibly equal to one another, and 144 incomplete sejita of 

 two different sizes — 192 in all. In one specimen there are 96 septa on one side and 92 on the other. 

 In another, 80 on one side, and 85 on the other. Another, 92 on one side, 94 on the other, and 28 of 

 these complete on each side. A young one has 17 complete on each side, and 82 on each side in all. 

 In all these specimens the septa are of three dimensions. The columella lies so deep in the fossa as to 

 be almost invisible. 



This species is well distinguished by its large size, its shape, and the peculiar cuttinir away, as it 

 were, of the septal borders close to the margin of the calicle. The very young specimens are closely 

 like those of Flahcllum jxilenn and Flahellum stohi'ni, though the adults are extremely different. 

 Flabellum dislitictuin Milne-Edwards and Haime is also in its young stages very like the jiresent 

 species, but iliffers in having a wider mouth to its calicle. In Flahellum aiistrale this is characteris- 

 tically narrow. 



Extreme height of the largest specimen, 57 mm. Extreme breadth, 65 mm. Shortest diameter 

 of the calicle, 28 mm. — Moseley, 1881. 



Von Miuviizcllcr propo.ses 7^. chunii for tho I^. distinct ii hi of Duncan (not Mihu^ 

 Edwards uiid llaime), collected by the Porcupine off the south and west coast of 

 Porttioal. 



The great variability of Milne Edwards and Ihiiiiic's F. (list inct inn was first 

 pointed out by I)uncaii (ISTo). As there is no diti'eieiice between the specimens 

 described and figured by Uuncan andMoseley's ]\ patens, Moseley 's attaching a new 

 name to his specimens may be attributed to an oversight. Both (Jardiner (1002) 

 and Alcock (I'.to-i) have identitied patens with t/ixfinctain. (Jardiner, as hiis already 

 been noted, refers F. australe to the synonymy of K pavoninwn, remarking that it 

 "shows a cutting away of the septal borders close to the margin of the calicle. a 

 character not found in the other specimens from the same dredging." Alcock says 

 of F. australe : ''This species, which is otiicrwisc not ditt'erent from /'. distinvtiim, 

 is distinguished bv the density and weight of the coralbnu and bv the more than 



