40 Thomson, SoutJi African Gorgonacca. 



also become more equally distributed on all sides towards the 

 apices of the colony. 



The axis of the colony expands into a basal attaching part, 

 which is 7 by 7 mm. in diameter, above this it gives off later- 

 ally disposed branches almost at once. The axis near the base 

 is brown or black in colour, and extremely hard. Its surface 

 IS very smooth, and shows very faint longitudinal lines or 

 striae. In the flexible apical branches the axis is extremely 

 thin, and has a thickness of less than i/ioth of a millimetre. 

 There is no clear distinction into nodes and internodes. 



The branches vary considerably as to their mode of origin, 

 their length, and the number of polyps. They may be simple 

 or compound. One distinguishes in the colony several pre- 

 dominant shoots, which give rise to simple and com[>ound 

 branches, the latter giving rise to undivided branchlets, or 

 to branchlets which may in their turn divide. There is also 

 a rare anastomosis between branches which are fairly remote 

 from one another in point of origin. The simple may come 

 off opposite one another, or nearly opposite one another, or 

 they may be alternate, and the same holds for the compound 

 branches. The simple branches vary in length from 2 mm. 

 up to 34 mm. The longer branches are not as a rule expanded at 

 the end, but the shorter ones are, and thus ha\e a knob-like 

 appearance at the apices. 



The dimensions of a colony may be 16 cm. in height by 

 10.5 cm. transversely. The polyps are very numerous and 

 thickly distributed, the better expanded appear as oval (white) 

 elevations (the calyces) whose long diameter is as a rule in 

 the direction of the long axis of the branch or shoot on which 

 they are situated, though this is not always the case; the 

 opening surrounded by the apex of the calyx appears open in 

 many cases, and the tentacles may be seen within as a whitish 

 or yello'Adsh mass. The calyces project only very slightly 

 beyond the general surface of the coenenchyme. The distance 

 between adjoining calyces varies considerably, sometimes it is 

 about I mm. A fairly well expanded polyp is about 2 by 

 1.5 mm. in diameter, and i mm. in height. 



The coenenchyme covering the axis is about o. i mm. in 

 thickness. The entire surface of the colony is covered with 

 small white spicules. The spicules of the polyp are spindles 

 with tubercles, double wheels, rough stars, warted spheres, 

 crosses, and some more irregular spicules. The spicules of the 

 coenenchyme are similar, but there are not so many, or any of 

 the longer narrow spindles. The long spindles are o.og x 

 0.02 mm. The double wheels are about 0.063 mm. in length, 

 the stars or warted spheres are about 0.045 mm. 



This species is distinguished from Eugorgia Gilchristi by 

 the calyces being here very much less prominent, by the basal 

 branches being compressed, by a thinner coenenchyme, and 

 other characters. It does not appear to agree with any of the 



