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around the oral cavity. Tentacular operculum almof^t Jwrizontal, consisting of 

 (iiil/i '2 or o spicules on tin' tcntucles ; does not fill the mouth of the verruca. 

 Spicules : — 



{a) Crenenehyma — small spindles, curved, rarely straight, frequently club- 

 shaped, covered with warts which are sometimes branched, 0"46 mm. x O'Oo mm., 

 Uo mm. X 1 2 mm. 



{h) Verrucre^club-shaped, spinose, arranged longitudinally, 0"3 mm. x 0033 

 mm., {V'l nun. x 0"03 mm. 



Axis thin, horny, flexible, brown. 



Colour — coenenchyma and verrucfe, coral red; tentacular operculum, whitish. 



Locality : Admiralty Islands, 16-20 fathoms. 



MurireUa ramosa, Thomson and Henderson. 



M. rariiosd, Thomson and Henderson. " Ceylon Pearl Oyster Fisheries," 

 Alcyonaria — Report XX. Roy. Soc, p. 301, 1905. 



= M. cetjlonensis, Thomson and Henderson, op. rit., p. 302. 



Colony branched in one plane, with or without anastomosis ; branches and 

 twigs opposite or alternate, arising almost at right angles. Coenenchyma thin 

 and composed of warty spindles, straight, curved, or S-shaped, which often 

 stretch between two polyps. VerruCce snvdl, standing perpendicularly, and 

 disposed in short spirals or more often laterally ; the base is surrounded by a 

 number of horizontally disposed spindles, but the verruca proper is formed of 

 longitudinally arranged spindles of the same type as in the crenenchyma. 

 The tentacular operculum is well developed and domedike ; it consists of a 

 collar of about five transverse rows and eight points, each point consisting 

 of about ekikt spindles arranged "en chevron". The axis is black in colour 

 in the older parts, but in the twigs it assumes a pale yellow tint ; it is fiat- 

 tened markedly in the plane perpendicular to that of raniijication., but in some 

 places the flattening is in the plane of ramification. The spicules are spindles, 

 straight, curved, or S-shaped, covered with numerous rough warts. 



The following are measurements length by breadth in millimetres : 3'5 x 0'3 ; 

 2-1 X 0-2(J ; 1(5 X 0-2 ; 13 x 02 ; 09 x 016 ; 025 x 0-06 ; 01 x 002L The large 

 spicules on some colonies may attain a length of 4'5 mm. 



It seems to us that M. cei/lo?iensis must be merged in M. ramosa. 



Localities : Gulf of Manaar, off Galle and onwards up West Coast of 

 Ceylon. 



Muricella hengalensis, Thomson and Henderson. 



M.bengalensis, Thomson and Henderson. "Alcyonaria of Indian Ocean," 

 Part I. (1906), p. 78, Plate I. fig. 8, and VIIL fig. 2. 



Branched in one plane ; branches almost regularly alternate. Coenenchyma 



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