29 



Color. The entire colony is ivory white in alcohol. 



This species has some resemblance to Cionatissa verrilli Wright and Studer; but the 

 calyces are smaller, the color different, and the spiculation of the calyces quite distinct. 



3. Mnriceides dubia new species. (Plate IV, figs. 2, 2a\ Plate XIX, fig. 11). 

 Stat. 274. 52°28'.2S., 134° 53'. 9 E. near Aru Islands. 57 meters. Sand and stones. 



Colony subflabellate in form, i i cm. high, and 7.5 cm. in diameter. The main stem is 

 tortuous, giving forth alternate individual branches i to 2 cm. apart, the branches bending 

 outward and upward like candalabra. The stem and branches are round, and have a uniform 

 thickness of about 4 mm. The calyces are crowded, and in places contiguous. They are inserted 

 on all sides of the stem and branches, the latter terminating in calyces. The ccenenchyma is thick. 



The individual caljxes are verruciform or dome-shaped, the polyps being completely 

 retracted and obliterating the orifice of the calyces. They are 2.5 mm. high and of about the 

 same diameter. Rarely they are much larger and more slender, being 4.5 long and 2.5 mm. 

 in diameter. Their walls are closely packed with large fusiform spindles vertically disposed. The 

 points of these spicules are gathered together at the margin, so as to entirely obliterate the 

 opening of the caly.x. There are a few spicules on the polyp walls beneath the collaret, which 

 is represented by an irregular, broken row of transversely placed spindles. The operculum is 

 weak, consisting of a few longitudinally disposed spicules, placed obscurely en chevron basally. 

 The tentacles, when retracted, are so closely approximated that they form a mass in which the 

 individuals are hard to see. 



The spaces between the calyces are covered with a minute, parasitic tubularian hydroid. 



Spicules. These are all fusiform spindles, closely tuberculated and of various sizes. 

 Those on the calyx walls are often imbricated. 



Color. The colony is almost white in alcohol. The axis is brown, and the spicules colorless. 



This species is somewhat doubtfully referred to the genus Mm'iceides on account of the 

 ill defined character of the operculum. 



Muricella Verrill (emended). 



Miiricella (Subgenus) Verrill. Transactions Connecticut Acad., Vol. i, 1869, p. 450. 

 Muricella Wright and Studer. Challenger Reports, the Alcyonaria, 1889, p. 123. 

 Mtiricella Ridley. Zoological Collections of H. M. S. Alert, 1884, p. 335. 



Verrill originally proposed the name Muricella for a "group" of the genus Muricea, 

 and described it as follows: 



"This division includes those .species which have a rather thin ccenenchyma, filled with 

 long spindles, with low, subconical Verrucae arising from between the large spicula and usually 

 standing at right angles to the surface, and covered with much smaller and shorter spmdles". 



This author has also called attention to the near relationship of this genus to Acts 

 which differs in having scale-like spicula covering the verruca;. 



