Mauc/ies/cr Memoirs^ Vol. Ixi. (igi6), No. I. 



17 



W rigJitclla f areata, sp.n. 



Plate II., Fig. I. 



The specimens are so fragile that it is ahnost impossible 

 to prevent their bemg broken, but fortunately a good figure 

 had previously been prepared. The ground colour of the stem 

 and branches is white, the nodes are yellow, the calcyces white 

 or yellowy the tentacles red. The branching is almost entirely 

 in one plane, is mostly dichotomous, with an occasional anasto- 

 mosis. The main stem and branches have externally a hard, 

 limy appearance. The colony has two mam surfaces, one in 

 which the polyps are well exposed, and the other in which 

 the coenenchyme is mostly free from polyps, and in which the 

 latter are only seen projecting as it were from the other side. 

 The main stem and branches are mostly cylindrical, but the 

 upper branches tend to become slightly flattened. The branches 



Text- fig. 4. .Spicules of Wrighteila furcata, sp.n., upper, from 

 polvps ; lower, from external part of coenencliyme. 



orginate, as shown m the figure in a forked manner from the 

 nodes, and here and there a branch arises from a node and 

 becomes connected with that from an adjoining node; m other 

 parts, more especially in the upper parts of the colony, short 

 simple branches may originate from the internodes. The in- 

 ternodes are white, finelv granular on the surface, with faint 

 longitudinal lines, and are shorter and thicker near the base 

 of the colonv than apically. At the base the main stem ex- 

 pands into a "limy expansion, and the nodes are more prominent 

 slightly above this lower extremity. 



The polyps are mostlv retracted, they consist of slightly 

 dome-shaped 8-lobed calvces, with the tentacles which are pro- 

 vided with spicules, folded down over the openings. The polyps 

 are arrancred in two lines on the stem and branches, with a few 



