CHAP. IV. ] ST. THOMAS TO BERMUDAS. 259 
large number of these were living; they were of various sizes 
and ages; some of the specimens were 18 centimetres in length, 
and some of the older stems 1 centimetre in diameter. 
Some dead but very fresh and perfect specimens of Fungia 
symmetrica, PouRTALES, came up at this station. These resem- 
ble Deltocyathus greatly, at first sight, in size and general ap- 
pearance, but they may be readily distinguished by a certain 
difference in form, and by the very evident synapticulee uniting 
the septa. 
Fig. 64.—Deltocyathus Agassizii, PourTaALEs. Stellate variety. From a depth of 200 fathoms 
near Bermudas. 
Several beautiful specimens were procured in the haul of a 
coral which we had taken before at Station III. at a depth of 
1525 fathoms, Cryptohelia pudica, Mitne-Epwarps. The ge- 
nus Cryptohelia was established by Milne-Edwards and Haime 
for a stylasteracean obtained from New Guinea. The Stylastera- 
ceans are remarkable in having their septa all equal, and, as has 
lately been observed by Sars in the case of Allopora, the only 
‘member of the group in which the soft parts are known, the 
tentacles lie between the (spurious?) septa. Mr. Moseley ob- 
served the same fact in a stylasteracean nearly allied to Cryp- 
tohelia dredged in 500 fathoms off the Meangis Islands. The 
genus Cryptohelia has its branches disposed in a uniform ver- 
tical plane, with the calicles all directed toward one face of the 
plane. The coral tissue is unusually dense and white; a thin 
