DESCRIPTION OF GENERA AND SPECIES. 



ALCYONARIA. 



Order I. GORGONACEA. 



Section I. HOLAXONIA. 



Family I. D a s Y G o R G I D .^. 

 Clirij»oriorgidif, Verrill, Lull. Miis. Comp. Zodl., vol. xi. Xo. 1, p. 21, 1883. 



This family is established for the genera included by Verrill in his famil)- Chrvso- 

 gorgidse, as well as for a new genus of simple forms, with uubranched stems. 



The genus Chrysogorgia, Duchassaing and Michelotti, was placed by the authors of the 

 Memoir on the Corals of the Antilles, in their Eevue des Zoophytes, &c. (Paris, 1871), 

 among the Gorgonellacese, next to Verrucella, and they mention that the species de- 

 scribed in the Supplement (p. 13) to their Memoir under the same name, but there placed 

 among the Primnoids, is the same as that described on p. 21 of the work. The figures 

 on pis. i. and iv. of the work of these authors, described as Chrysogorgia deshonni, do 

 not appear to belong to the same species, and as the type specimen is no longer to be 

 found in the Museum of Turin, this doul)t will not be easily settled. Verrill has, however 

 {loc. cit.), given a new diagnosis of the genus and also re-described Clirysogorgia desbonni, 

 referring also to this genus, as a new species {Clirysogorgia fewkesi), a form referred to 

 as Chrysogorgia desbonni hj Pourtales, in which the pol3^ps are " covered with .scales 

 like those of the stem [irregular, not imbricated] and closed b)^ eight blunt lancet-shaped 

 scales." 



In the uncertainty as to what .species was really described b)^ Duchassaing and 

 IMichelotti under the name Chrysogorgia desbonni, we prefer to adopt Verrill's genus 

 Dasygorgia, which appears to be the most i)rominent one of the group, as the type genus 

 of a family, which may be characterised as follows : — 



Colony consisting of a simple or branched a.xis. Main axis ; calcareous at its base, 

 which latter is cither flattened and di.sc-like, or ramifying into numerous root-like 

 processes ; the fibrous portions of the stems and branches with calcareous particles inter- 

 mixed ; often brilliantly iridescent. Coenenchyma ; for the most part thin, sometimes 



(ZOOL. CHAIX. EXr. — PART LXIV. — 1887.) Sss 1 



