59 



Spicules. The most conspicuous form is the one characteristic of the genus Echinomuricea, 

 being strong, sharp spindles with the basal ends expanded into foliaceous projections, sometimes 

 resembling Stachelplatten. These projections are often profusely forked and lobulated in various 

 ways. Spindles are not uncommon, both straight and curved, their surfaces covered with fme 

 spiny jjoints, rather than the rough tubercles usually found. 



Color. The colony is light yellowish brown. The spicules are colorless. 



\. Echinonniricca spinifera new species. (Plate IX, figs. 2, 2a; Plate XXI, fig. 6). 



Stat. 164. i°42'.5 S., i30°47'.5E. New Guinea. 32 meters. Sand and stones. 

 Stat. 274. 5°28'.2S., I34°53'.9E. near Aru Islands. 57 meters. Sand and Stones. 



The colony (incomplete) is straggling in habit and 7.8 cm. in height. The main stem is 

 destitute of polyps and covered with an encrusting bryozoon for nearly its proximal half. 3 cm. 

 from its base it givfes off a branch which bifurcates ; one of the resulting branches giving off 

 a lateral branchlet, and the other being unbranched. The other main branch gives off one 

 short lateral i cm. from its origin. The calyces are very thickly emplanted on all sides of the 

 branches, being so closely set as to be usually almost contiguous. 



The individual calyces are very short cylinders expanded at the margins. They are 

 about I mm. high and i.S mm. in diameter at the margin. There is a very distinct crown of 

 marginal points, their number having no apparent relation to the number of tentacles, nor 

 their emplacement to the tentacle bases. The calyx walls are beset with spiny points, some of 

 which are almost as conspicuous as the marginal points. The crown consists of more than one 

 circlet of points, the inner circlets bending over the incurved tentacles so that their ends often 

 form a tuft of needle-like points rather than a circlet, the inner ones being attached to the 

 tentacle bases over which they bend when the tentacles are infolded. The distal portions of 

 the tentacles are armed with smaller longitudinal spindles. 



Spicules. These are of exceedingly various forms. The most common and conspicuous 

 is the regular Echinonmricea type with long smooth sharp points, and bases expanded into 

 various foliaceous proce.sses with complicated frills and lobes. There are also numerous Stachel- 

 platten, crosses, stars, butter-fly-shaped forms, and a few simple small spindles. Indeed most of 

 the known forms of spicules found in the Muriceidae are represented, but the characteristic 

 ones are those of the calyx as described above. 



Color. The colony is light brown, the axis golden brown, and the spicules colorless. 



vSeveral larger colonies from Station 274 agree well in their details with the type. 



5. Echinomuricca pulchra new species. (Plate X, figs. 3, 3a ; Plate XXI, fig. 7). 



Stat. 240. Banda Anchorage. 9 — 45 meters. Lithothamnion. 



The colony is fragmentary, flabellate in form, 12.2 cm. in height and with a spread of 

 about 7.3 cm. The main stem, or branch, is denuded, 2.8 mm. thick. 1.9 cm. above its jjroximal 

 end arises the branch which bears the only portions with calyces. 



