43 



and the internodes increase in length as we go from proximal to distal parts of the colony 

 where the nodes are but a little more that i mm. and the internodes are sometimes g mm. 

 long. The branchings are mainly dichotomous and the forkings are U-shaped. Many of the 

 smaller branches are frequently girdled by a small parasitic form which looks like checkered 

 belts or bands tightly compressing the coenenchyma. The calyces are mainly lateral and anterior 

 in position, and are so low as to be barely visible. 



The individual calyces are very low rounded domes, more evident on the distal twigs 

 then elsewhere. They are very small, averaging scarcely more than i mm. in diameter. Their 

 walls are filled with spiny spindles and thorny clubs, the edges of which give a serrated 

 appearance. The polyps are very small and so completely retracted that their characters are 

 hard to make out. They have a strong collaret above which are spindles arranged e n 

 chevron over the tentacle bases and longitudinally on the dorsal surfaces of the tentacles. 

 In certain stages of retraction these latter spicules form a series of points beyond which the 

 tentacles suddenly bend downward. 



Spicules. These are mainly rather large spiny spindles, with the individual spines often 

 spinulate. There are also one-sided spindles, spiny clubs and numerous other forms, all of which 

 are but modifications of the spiny spindle characteristic of this genus. 



Color. The colony is lemon yellow and the axis is dark pink. 



Other specimens are more robust than the type described, and the calyces are distributed on 

 all sides of the distal branches. These specimens are light orange brown, instead of yellow, in color. 



Genus Acabaria Gray. 



Acabaria A- Anicella Gray, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 4th Series, Vol. 2, 186S, 



p. 444. 

 Acabaria Ridley. Zoological Collections H. M. S. Alert, 1884, p. 360. 

 Acabaria Studer. Versuch eines Systemes der Alcyonaria, 1887, p. 31. 

 Acabaria Wright and Studer. Challenger Report, the Alcyonaria, 1889, p. XXXVI. 

 Acabaria Delage et.Herouard. Traite de Zoologie Concrete, II, 2, 1901, p. 414. 

 Acabaria Kükenthal. Die Gorgonidenfamilie der Melitodidse, Zoolog. Anz. Bd. XXXIII, 1908, 



p. 194. 



The original definition of this family is as follows : 



"The coral very slender, branched dichotomous, expanded in a plane; branches and 

 branchlets very slender, compressed, with short swollen joints, more pronounced on the older 

 stems. Bark thin, hard, smooth. Cells short, broad, subcylindrical, truncated, in a single series 

 on each edge of the branches and branchlets, rather close together. Axis calcareous, solid, red, 

 longitudinally grooved ; internodes short, swollen spongy". 



The same author proposes the genus Aiiicella^ based on an Australian species with 

 internodes (nodes, as the term is now used) red, swollen. This can hardly be regarded as a 

 generic character, and the species .should be included in Acabaria. 



Ridley (1884) practically adopts the above definition, but establishes a new genus 

 Psilacabaria, which Klken'tiial (1908) would include in Acabaria. 



