SECTION I V., 1895. [135] TRANS. R.S.C. 
V.— Note on the occurrence of Primnoa reseda on the coast of British Columbia. 
By J. F. WHITEAVES. 
(Read May 16, 1895.) 
P. reseda is a large, branching or tree-like Alcyonarian coral, that, 
as shown by Professor Verrill,! was first described by the Russian natu- 
ralist Pallas, in his “ Elenchus Zoophytarum,” published in 1766, as 
Gorgonia reseda, and subsequently by Linnæus, in the twelfth edition of 
the “Systema Nature,” published in 1767, as Gorgonia lepadifera. 
The genus Primnoa was constituted for its reception by Lamoroux 
in 1816, and it was made the type of a distinct family, the Primnoade, 
by Dr. J. E. Gray in 1859. In the report onthe Alcyonaria collected by 
HMS. “Challenger,” by Professors Wright and Studer, published in 1889, 
P. reseda is included in the family Primnoade, of section 2 of the order 
Gorgonacea of Verrill. This order is there defined as consisting of “fixed 
colonial Alcyonaria with a more or less firm internal axis, which is 
covered by a cenenchyma from which the polyps, with their short body 
cavities, arise.’ Section 2 of that order, for which the term Holaxonia is 
proposed, is described as including seven families of “ Gorgonacea with 
an axis which consists of horny material, or of a calcified horny substance, 
or of alternating joints of amorphous calcareous material and horn.” 
The family Primnoadæ is re-defined as follows: “ Holaxonia with a 
calcareous and horny axis, basal attachment always calcareous. The 
polyps with a projecting, usually club-shaped calycine portion, tentacular 
portion retractile. The cenenchyma contains a superticial layer of scale- 
like calcareous bodies, which are continued upwards over the calyx, 
where they are arranged in regular sequence, usually bilaterally symme- 
trical, they overlap each other around the margin of the calyx; eight of 
the scales form an operculum, and they may be brought together so as 
to close the opening. The calyces are movable ; they are thrust outward 
when erect, or are, when retracted, turned towards the stem, so as to lay 
their oral apertures against the stem. In some species this retraction is 
also accompanied by a twisting of the base of the calyx, which turns the 
oral aperture downwards.” The amended definition of the genus Primnoa, 
in this report, is as follows: ‘The colony is branched. The polyps occur 
in close spirals over the entire periphery of the stem and branches. Each 
polyp calyx is inclosed dorsally and laterally by two large scales, of 
which there are two longitudinally overlapping rows, the upper margin 
of one scale always overlapping the lower border of the next. There is 

1 In Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Cambridge, Mass., vol. 1 (1864), p. 37, and in subse- 
quent papers. 
