THE ALCYONARIA OF THE MALDIVES. 493 



misprints, coupled with a study of the lowermost of his four figures marked d, which appears 

 to be the point of a large spicule 2 or more mm. in length, and that the author does not 

 comment on the small size of these spicules as compared with those of S. godeffroyi, a doubt 

 may arise as to whether 05 mm. in his description is not a misprint for 5 mm. 



Even if the spicules are so small as they are stated to be in Klunzinger's specimen it does 

 not seem to me that this is a sufficient reason for making the Maldive specimens into a new 

 species. The size of the spicules of Alcyonarians varies very much in different localities and 

 conditions of growth, and there might well be a considerable range in this respect in one 

 species that occurs over such a wide range as the Red Sea and the Maldives. 



Klunzinger makes a note at the end of his description that " Beim Trocknen tritt die 

 Bindesubstanz durch ihre weisse Farbe vor und giebt dem Ganzen ein staub- oder schaum- 

 artiges Ansehen oder wie weiss und roth gesprenkelt und das Roth tritt zurtick." 



I have found that on drying a small portion of one branch of specimen B that the en- 

 crusting sponge turns white, and gives the specimen very much the appearance described by 

 Klunzinger. It is quite possible, therefore, that what this author describes as the superficial 

 connective tissue is in reality an encrusting sponge. 



The bright yellow colour of the spicules of the anthocodiae which forms such a very con- 

 spicuous feature of these specimens is a minor point of resemblance with the type of S. mirabilis. 

 In Siphonogorgia piistidosa (W. and S.) we have a similar combination of yellow spicules in 

 the anthocodiae with red spicules in the coenenchym. In iS. cylindrata (Kuk.), the spicules of 

 the anthocodiae are also pale yellow, the spicules of the rest of the colony being yellow. 



The slender spicules of the crown and points of the anthocodiae vary in size, but average 

 about '3 mm. in length, i.e. only a trifle longer than those of the type specimen. The arrange- 

 ment of the spicules in the points, i.e. on the aboral side of the tentacles, has been described 

 above under the genus Chironephthya. 



The geogi-aphical distribution of the genus Siphonogorgia, as it is at present known, is 

 interesting. Specimens have been obtained ft-om the Pelew Islands, Ellice Islands (Funafiiti), 

 N.W. Australia, New Hebrides, Malay archipelago, and one specimen hitherto found in the 

 Red Sea. The discovery of Siphonogorgia in the Maldives fills up a gap between the extreme 

 East and West limits, and suggests that it may occur in other suitable localities of the Indian 

 Ocean. 



Family Briareidae. 



Genus Solenocaulon (Gray). 



The general features of this genus were first described by Gray (8). Subsequently 

 Genth (6) described with considerable detail an Alcyonarian from the Philippines, which he 

 named Solenogorgia tubulosa. Later on Studer (21) in describing a new species {Solenocaulon 

 grayi), gave reasons for including Genth's specimen in Gray's original genus Solenocaidon. 

 Six years ago Germanos (7) in his paper on the Gorgonacea of Temate gave a historical 

 review of the genus, and added three new species. 



In Germanos' interesting and important contribution to our knowledge of the genus he 

 proposed to arrange the six known species into two groups as follows: 



