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



The coenenchyma is relatively thick and not transparent. It is filled with large, 

 thick, warty spindles, which, placed close together, form a continuous covering. The 

 spindles are usually simply curved or slightly S-shaped, frequently blunted and thickened 

 at one end so as to become somewhat club-shaped. They are thickly covered with rough 

 warts, whose surface is prickly and often even covered with little branching spines. In 

 the centre of the spicules the warts come off at right angles, at the ends they are directed 

 towards the apex. The spindles are placed in the long axis of the stem and branches, 

 around the base of the calyx they form a ring. The size and thickness, as well as the 

 shape, are very variable. Size :— 1-25 by 0-25; I'S by 0-2; 1-2 by 0-2; 0-94 by 

 0'13 mm. These spicules form only a single layer in the coenenchyma. 



The spicules of the calyx are shaped like those of the coenenchyma, generally more 

 rounded off towards the base, and pointed towards the margin. They stand vertically 

 upon the spicules of the coenenchyma and are arranged in eight groups. Each group 

 consists of two rows of spicules converging towards the margin of the calyx ; at the base 

 they diverge from one another and at the margin they form eight projecting teeth. They 

 measure 0'63 by 0"! ; 0"58 liy 0"13 ; 0'41 by 0'12 mm. Their surfaces are usually less 

 thickly tubercled. In the spirit specimen the calycular o^jerculum forms on many of the 

 calyces a conical process ; the bases of the tentacles, constituting the operculum, are 

 formed of several spindle-shaped sjjicules arranged " en chevron" whose size gradually 

 decreases from the base of the tentacle upwards. Tlie coUeret is feebly developed, being 

 only a ring of slightly curved spicules. The spicules of the operculum are straight or 

 slightly curved spindles, covered with simple, vertical wartlets; they measure 0'41 by 

 0-05 ; 0-38 by 0-042 ; 0-37 by 0-033 ; O'lG by 0-05 ; 0-28 by 0-09 mm. 



The axis is thin, flexible and horny ; in the thicker branches black and in the twigs 

 yellowish. The coenenchyma is, however, so packed with spicules, as to give to the 

 colony a rigid character. The colour of the coenenchyma is pale rose, the majority of the 

 spicules in its axial portion being of a rosy red colour while the outer calcareous layers 

 are colourless. The calyces are yellowish. 



Habitat. — Station 232, Hyalonema-gMOVLndi, ofi" Japan; depth, 345 fathoms; bottom, 

 green mud. 



4. Muricella perramosa, Ridley. 



Muricella perramosa, Ridley, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, vol. x. p. 128, August 1882. 



Ridley gives this name to a Gorgonid from Mauritius, the description and figures of 

 which agree so closely with two pieces in the Challenger collection, that we can without 

 hesitation place the latter in the same species, notwithstanding the wide range in their 

 geographical distribution. The species forms a richly ramified, fan-shaped colony, the 

 larger specimen being 35 mm. high and 25 mm. broad. 



