[9] ALBATROSS EXPLORATIONS. All 
lenger” off Buenos Ayres. A. Murrayi K. was first taken by the “Chal.- 
lenger” off Nova Scotia. The ‘ Albatross” dredged it in 640 to 1,362 
fathoms. Other tall, wand-like species are Funiculina armata V., which 
is very slender, and Balticina Finmarchica, fig.11. The latter frequently 
grows to the length of a yard and is about an inch in diameter. Many 
of the specimens have the round, stony axis stripped bare at the end, 
and sometimes in other places, for a longer or shorter distance, by acci- 
dental injuries. Nearly always these naked places are occupied by a 
peculiar species of Actinian (Actinauge newilis V., fig. 22), which starts 
like ordinary young Actinians, with a flat base, but the sides of the base 
spread out thin and wrap around the axis of the coral till they meet on 
opposite sides, when they coalesce by a firm suture, inclosing the coral 
in a sort of tube or sheath, and when several of them start near to- 
gether their bases mutually coalesce where they come in contact, thus 
forming a continuous covering over the dead coral. This Actinian 
grows to a rather large size, and the weight of a cluster, often of five or 
six, and in one case nine, at the top of the tall, slender axis causes it to 
bend over, so that they are pendulous on the nodding summit of the 
coral. By certain writers this denuded condition of the axis of this 
species has been supposed to be normal, or at least constant, but I have 
seen numerous specimens that are perfect to the tip. Several other 
deep-sea Actinians from this region have the same habit of growth, in- 
closing the denuded axis of various species of Gorgonians. One of the 
most abundant of these is Sagartia Acanelle V., fig. 25, which thus in- 
closes denuded portions of the bush-coral, Acanella Normani. It has 
the same orange or salmon color as the coral on which it lives. 
The Gorgonacea or “bush corals,” are well represented, at great 
depths, by several handsome species, some of them 2 or 3 feet high, and 
nearly all belonging to genera that are peculiar to the deep sea, for 
which they are specially adapted by a peculiar modification of the base, 
which divides into a number of divergent, root-like branches, sometimes 
becoming much divided and slender, but more commonly flat and irreg- 
ular. These penetrate, like roots, into the soft mud and thus give a 
secure anchorage on bottoms where no solid foundation could be had 
for species that adhere only to solid objects by a flat expansion of the 
base, as in nearly all shallow-water species. The root-like base is char- 
acteristic of the genera Acanella, Lepidisis, Dasygorgia and Lepidogor- 
gia found in our region, and of many others found elsewhere in deep- 
sea dredging. Most of these corals are orange, orange-red, or salmon- 
color in life, some of them varying to red or to orange-brown. One of 
the most elegant of these, dredged in 1,346 to 1,362 fathoms, is Dasygor- 
gia Agassiait V., first discovered by the “ Blake.” It isa plumose, much 
branched coral, with the terminal twigs very slender, while the main 
branches are spirally arranged. Its axis is slender, calcareous, and 
iridescent, and its root-like base is divided into short, flat, irregular 
branches. Its polyps are prominent, relatively large, rather far apart, 
