THE ALCYONARIA OF THE MALDIVES. 513 



Autozooids. The autozooids are most numerous round the margin, and most are ahnost 

 completely expanded. In the middle of the disc they are from 5 — 10 mm. apart, but on 

 the margin they are crowded together in radiating Hues. The anthocodia, or free distal 

 portion of an expanded autozooid, is 4 — 4'5 mm. in length with an average diameter of I'Smm. 

 through the crown of tentacles. The tentacles are of the simple type (with a single row 

 of pinnules on each side), and are about 1 mm. in length, so that they appear small com- 

 pared with the large size of the anthocodia. The stomadaeum is long, and its walls are 

 much folded. As in other species of Sarcophytum the siphonoglyph is not well marked. 

 The mesenteries are very large, and are much convoluted in the preserved condition. 



The siphonozooids are narrow and long, where their growth in length is not impeded 

 by the proximity of autozooids. The surface diameter averages "3 mm., so that they may 

 be fairly easily seen with a lens. They apparently fill up all the spaces between the 

 autozooids, and are consequently most numerous near the middle of the disc, where there 

 may be as many as from 10 — 16 siphonozooids in a straight line between two autozooids. 

 Nearer the margin there may be from 4 — 6, but the autozooids are so crowded on the 

 margin that the intervening siphonozooids cannot be counted except in sections. The stomo- 

 daeura is short, but is slightly longer than that of S. glaucum ; its average length is 2 mm. 

 The mesenteries are apparently more conspicuous in this than in any other species which 

 I have examined. 



Spicules. This species is interesting because of its small, slender spicules, which are 

 very few in number. It is very improbable that spicules have been dissolved out by an 

 acid preservative because they are most numerous in the peripheral tissues, and in decalcified 

 preparations the holes left by the spicules are small and few in number. As the specimens 

 were taken in fairly deep water the sparsity of spicules may to a certain extent be due 

 to their habitat. 



The spicules are somewhat more numerous in the stalk than in the capitulum, but they 

 appear to occur even there only near the surface, where they have the form of minute 

 clubs "17 mm. long and '03 mm. broad. These spicules are similar to those near the surface of 

 the capitulum. The spicules of the coenenchym throughout the specimens are very slender, 

 pointed spindles, straight or slightly curved and dotted with a few minute spines (fig. 6); 

 they are about -5 mm. long by '03 mm. broad. Long, slender clubs, about '5 mm. in length, 

 with small heads also occur. A few of the slender spindles are regularly arranged en chevron 

 in the walls of the anthocodiae of the autozooids, while shorter spindles occur on the 

 tentacles. 



The species differs from all others which I have examined, in its soft, tough texture, 

 in the sparseness and small size of its spicules, in its flattened disc-like form, and in the 

 large size of its autozooids, which are extremely numerous on the margin of the disc. The 

 siphonozooids appear to differ from those of other species in the length of their stomodaea 

 ("2 mm.) and in their strongly marked mesenteries and filaments. 



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