REPORT ON THE ALCYONARIA. 171 



portions being in all essentials of the same t" /e — that is of a sclerogorgic basis. In the 

 harder portions (internodes) the separate ^ .gated spicules are in the young state of the 

 a xis very clearly seen ; the calcareous pa' jles increase at the expense of the horny ones ; 

 with a result that the internode becomes of a stony hardness, and in some cases, especially 

 in Parisis, almost homogeneously calcareous. In tlie softer portions (nodes) the sclero- 

 gorgic state is more permanent, as the spicules retain a great deal of their horny frame- 

 work, and though to a large extent inosculated with each other, never altogether lose 

 their individuality. In some forms the nodal portions, as Lamarck long ago pointed 

 out, are much more swollen (nodiform) than the internodal portions ; but this is not 

 always the case, as in Parisis the diameter of these two portions is more or less uniform, 

 and in very old stems of some species of Moi^sella and Mditodes the very reverse, as is 

 well known, is to be found. 



The branches arise either from the nodal or internodal regions ; in some exceptional 

 cases even in the same colony from both. 



While there is no doubt a resemblance to the family of the Isidas, yet we have been 

 unable to detect in any of the species belonging to the Isidae the appearance of any 

 sclerogorgic tissue, and we therefore think it better to keep the Melitodida^ in close 

 sequence to the Sclerogorgidse. 



In some species an apparent dimorphism occurs, as has already been pointed out by 

 Ridley. So far as our investigations on a very limited material have gone — the larger 

 polyps have always been found full of ova — and we have found no such difference in 

 structure as would point to the existence of auto- and siphonozoids, but we think it 

 possible that, as is well seen among the autozoids of some of the Dasygorgidse, the 

 difference in size is solely the result of an effective fertilization. 



Genus Melitodes, Verrill. 



Ids (in part), Liniifeus, Ellis, Esper. 



Melitxa (in part), Lamouroux (1812) [preoccupied Melitxa, Fabricius, 1808]. 



„ ,, Lamarck, Mem. Mus. Hist. Nat. t. i. p. 410, 181.5. 



„ „ Milne-Edwards, Hist. Nat. des Coralliaires, t. i. p. 199. 



Melitodes, Verrill, Lull. JMus. Conip. Zocil., vol. i. p. 38, 186.5. 

 Mellthxa (in jjart), Kolliker, Icones llistiolugiea;, Abth. i. p. 142. 

 Anicella {?), Gray, Cat. Lithophytes, p. 9. 

 Melitella, Gray, Proc. Zool. See. Loud., p. 485, 1859. 

 Acaharia, Gray, Prnc. Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 484, 1859. 

 Psilaeabaria, Ridley, Zool. ColL H.M.S. "Alert," p. 363, 1884. 



While agreeing with Verrill (Juc. cit.) \n taking Isis dichotoma, Lamarck, as the 

 type of this genus, and including in it all those species in whicli the spicules of the 

 ccBnenchyma are warty or kneed .spindles ; and in which " Blattkeulen" arc not present ; 



