27 
dependent throughout their visible course: it occasionally happens that a little 
palus may stand opposite to a single one of them. 
The columella is variable: sometimes it consists of a few thin twisted 
ribbons which in places are confluent with two or three of the pali, sometimes 
it consists of a few papilliform lamellee; it is always small. 
The colour both of soft parts and of corallum is white. 
The diameter of an average (parent) calicle is about 3 millim. 
Dredged along with a beautiful little species of Cryptohelia, off the 
Maldives at 210 fms. 
Though not a typical Cyathohelia, this species seems to me to be nearer 
te this genus than to either Bathelia or Sclerohelia, 
xiii. SoLENOosMILIA, Martin Duncan. 
23. Solenosmilia Jeffreyt, nu. sp. Pi. iii. figs. 8, 3a—d, 
Corallum dendroid, the terminal calyces of the branches having the typical 
form—i.e., two calyces imperfectly separated by fission, with a common fossa 
and columella; though it may happen that four or even eight calyces may 
communicate, in which case there is no columella. 
In the distal halves, more or less, of the branches, large rugiform costee— 
which are few in number and are somewhat twisted—are present; but the 
older parts of the branches have a smooth frosted appearance. 
The primary calyces are usually subcircular, with a deep fossa, and with 
three complete cycles—and an incomplete fourth cycle—in six systems, of thin 
septa. The septa are of no great breadth and do not much encroach on the 
fossa: though there is often a want of uniformity among them, no one system 
is of markedly predominant size: they are sometimes straight, sometimes 
twisted, and their surface is variably spicular. The columella is usually deep- 
seated, and usually consists of a light-looking mass of thin loosely-twisted 
processes. 
The calyces in and after recent fission are of every shape, from elliptical 
to polygonal: large wrinkle-like cost are present, the septa are rather caprici- 
ous in size and form, and the columella is often so deep as to be invisible. In 
some cases no columella is present, and then the end of the branch for some 
distance is quite hollow, so that the fossze of several corallites or pairs of 
corallites are in widely open communication. 
The colour of the “living” corallum varies, from cinnamon in the older 
parts, to yellowish brown in the parts newest formed. 
An immense mass, living and dead, was dredged off the Travancore coast 
at 430 fms. 
