MOPSELLAD^. O 



/3. Coral dark red, with yellow cells ; cells small, in two rows, almost 

 entirely confined to the sides of the branchlets ; in some specimens 

 the cells are not so distinctly marked and bright- coloured as in 

 others. 



The interarticular pieces of the branches vary in surface : in some 

 specimens they are nearly smooth, in other specimens they are deeply 

 and irregularly longitudinally channelled. 



Lamarck describes three varieties : — 



a. Purple, ramuli very numerous, 



b. Whitish yellow, ramuli less numerous. 



c. Yellow, with series of purple cells on the sides of the branchlets. 



71. MelithaBa virgata. 

 Coral expanded ; principal branches nearly parallel, much elongated 

 tapering, and subdividing far less rapidly than in M. ochracea ; tlie 

 calcareous segments of the axis elongate. 



Melithfea ochracea (part.), Dana, from Fejeo Islands. 

 Melitodes virgata, Verrill, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. p. 38. 



Hab. Feejee Islands. 



Fam. 7. MOPSELLAD.E. 



Coral branched, on a plane ; branches from the articulations, 

 forked, often parallel and anastomosing. Axis calcareous, solid, 

 hard, semitransparent, pink, longitudinally striated. The inter- 

 nodes swollen, spongy or cork-like, red. Bark moderately thick, 

 granular, spiculose. Polype-cells somewhat prominent, in one or 

 more series on the edges of the branches. 



Synopsis of Genera. 

 1. Coral fan-shaped. 



1. Melixella. Polype-cells long, in several rows. 



2. AcABARiA. Polype-cells broad, short, in one row. 



3. Aj^icella. Polype-cells smaU, prominent, in one row. 



II. Coral shrub-like, forked. 



4. MopsELLA. Coral shrub -like, dichotomous. 



5. Clathraria. Coral shrub-like, dichotomous, inosculating. 



I. Coral fan-shaped. 

 29. MELITELLA. 



Coral fan-like, expanded, forked ; branchlets generally inoscu- 

 lating, often divaricated. Cells rather convex, numerous, in several 

 series on the sides and upper surface of the branches and branchlets, 

 leaving a slender impressed Line destitute of cells on one (the lower) 



