EEPOET ON THE ALCYONAEIA, 15 



grow together so as to give rise to double and quadruple forms. Length to breadth 

 0-1 9-0-08; 0-3-0-05; O-lG-0-06; 0-2-0-15; 0-15-0-02; 0-3-0-02 ; 0-2-0-03 mm. 



Hahitat. — Station 214, south of tlic Pliilijipincs ; depth, 500 fathoms; bottom, blue 

 mud. 



7. Dasygorgia melanotrichoft, n. sp. (PL IV. fig. 3 ; PL V. fig. 5). 



The slender, thread-like stem gives off branches at great intervals on four sides, which 

 ramify in different planes very copiously and at obtuse angles, giving off twigs up to the 

 sixth order. The axis is horny, stiff, even to the simplest ramifications, shining, and of 

 a dark brown colour. The polyps, 2'1 mm. in length, are slender, cylindrical, and are 

 always on the short internodes of the twig. The spicules of the upper layer are blunt, 

 flat spindles, covered with very fine, sharp warts, often somewhat constricted in the 

 middle, and exhibiting fine lines radiating from a central nucleus. In the polyps they are 

 longitudinally placed, towards their base they assume an oblique direction, and pass into 

 the very thin ccenenchyma, in which they become broader and shorter, almost scale-shaped. 



This species, of which only the stem (wdthout the base) and several branches were 

 obtained, in habit very closely resembles the former, from which it differs in the more 

 abundantly ramified branches, and in the form of the spicules and polyps. 



The stem is thin, not bent in its course, and of tolerably uniform thickness. Its 

 diameter reaches, at the lower end, 1 mm. The branches first arise at a heisht of 

 105 mm. from four sides, nt unequal, but very great intervals. The distnnce between 

 the first and second is 11 mm., between the second and third 14 mm., between the third 

 and fourth 45 mm. The branches are angularly bent, in different planes, at the places 

 where the twigs arise ; the twigs come off" at o])lique angles and give off lateral t^^^gs at 

 similar angles, which are again bent in a zigzag manner and give rise to twigs. The last 

 twigs may be of the sixth order. The internodes are not very long, 5 to 6 mm. Hence 

 arises an uncommonly ricli, wide-spreading ramification. 



The polyps are cylindrical, 1 '5 mm. long, with broad bases ; usually there is one 

 perpendicularly placed poly]? on an internode, seldom two. 



The axis is horny, dark brown, shining and somewhat iridescent on the surfiice, 

 slightly flexible and elastic. In the main stem it is thread-like, in the finer branches it 

 appears like a stiff horse hair. 



The spicules of the outer layer are broad spindles, with rounded ends and some- 

 what sinuous edges, lender a higher power fine lines are seen radiating from a central 

 nucleus to the edges, and they are found to be provided with sharp little thorns, which 

 form little points on the edges. Their length to breadth in mm. reaches in the polyps 

 0-29-0-OG ; 0-26-0-07 ; 0-28-0-0G7; in the tentacles 0-22 and 0-25-0-04 ; in the 

 coenenehj'-ma 0'21-0-033 ; 0-16-0-025 ; 0-2-0-05-0-058. 



Habitat. — Station 343, Ascension Island; depth, 425 fathoms; bottom, volcanic sand. 



