120 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



The axis is homy, flexible, elastic, brown. The terminal branches are yellowish. The 

 general colour of the colony is a dark coral red. 

 Habitat. — Torres Strait. 



2. Echinogorcjia ramulosa (Gray) (PI. XXII. fig. 8 ; PI. XXV. fig. 6). 



Bocella ramulosa, Gray, Ann. and Mag Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. v. p. 407. 

 Echinogorgia ramulosa, Ridley, Zool. Coll. H.M.S. "Alert," p. 339. 



Dr. Gray first named this species, which he made the type of his genus Bovclla, 

 described as " Coral branched, fan-shaj^ed, expanded into an oblong frond, stem simple ; 

 branches and branchlets slender, of the same diameter throughout ; branches radiating 

 and irregularly furcately divided, with abundance of short branchlets arranged rather 

 pinnately and diverging at nearly right angles, forming a more or less regular network ; 

 many of the branchlets, especially the marginal ones, free. Bark furfuraceous, formed of 

 very small soft spicules or thin scales. Polyjae-cells circular, prominent, with a sunken 

 centre and a furfuraceous surface, placed on all sides of the branchlets and on the internal 

 surface of the branches. Axis continuous, horny, black." The natural affinity of this 

 form was not at all clear from Gray's description, w^hich serves also as the diagnosis 

 of the genus. 



Eidley, who {Joe. cit.) had the opjDortunity of comparing the sujiposed type specimen 

 in the British Museum, refers the species to Echinogorgia. One specimen in the 

 Challenger collection fairly agrees in its general characters with Dr. Gray's species, so 

 that it is here described under the same specific name. 



The species is left in the genus Echinogorgia, although it difi'ers in some of its 

 characters from the typical s^aecies of this geniis. The polyps are more prominent than 

 in any of the known species ; further, their distribution on the stem and the branches 

 is peculiar, while they are well developed on one surface of the stem ; on the other, the 

 plain coenenchyma is alone met with. Of the spicules, the one-sided spiny spindles and 

 discs predominate, arranged in the coenenchyma like a pavement ; by which fact this 

 species may be distinguished ivom. Echinogorgia Jiabellum, to which species Ridley would 

 apparently unite it. The stem, which is upright, is richly branched in one plane, expanded 

 into a cup-shaped form, but with free branches and twigs. The whole colony reaches to 

 a height of 125 mm., with a breadth of 160 mm. The principal stem is a little bent, 

 almost at its base, to the one side, and immediately gives ofi", on both sides, smaller and 

 larger branches, alternating at an angle of 45°. The length of the principal stem is 

 80 mm., with a diameter of 4 mm. at the base; that of the branches 60 to 100 mm., 

 with a basal diameter of 3 mm. The branches give ofi' twigs in a similar manner to 

 the principal stem, at angles of 45°, which have lateral branches, terminating with 

 slight thickenings. The last free branches have a length of 10 to 16 mm., Tvdth a 



