REPORT ON THE ALCYONARIA. 241 



which folds over the stem, is for a breadth of 3 mm. destitute of polyps, and is of a paler 

 colour than the rest of the mass. The polyps are found over the whole of the slightly 

 elevated portion. In another specimen, the colony divides into two portions, one of 

 which rises from the base to a height of 25 mm. and 33 mm., with a very uniform thick- 

 ness of 15 mm. The other branch only rises to about half this height ; the common base 

 measures about 25 by 15 mm. In a third specimen there are several distinct heads. 



The polyps are completely retractile, just as in the previously described species. 

 When the jiolyps are fully expanded, the eight lobes of the base form a portion of the 

 body column, the middle of which contains but few spicules, and these are very small. 

 Some of the expanded polyps, though contracted in the spirits, measure 4 '5 mm. in 

 height and 2 mm. in diameter, across the tentacular coronet. 



The ccenenchyma is moderately hard, containing stachelkeulen. The basal portion 

 of the tentacles is tightly packed with straight and spiny spindles, these forming a 

 complete coronet, from which some of the spicules proceed up along the dorsal aspect 

 of each tentacle. At the basal portion of the polyps, where the body sinks into the 

 ccenenchyma, the stachelkeulen are met with. 



The colour in spirits is an orange-yellow ; polyps greyish. 



The spicules measure: — The stachelkeulen O'l 8-0 "04 ; 0'12-0"06 mm. The curved 

 spiny spindles 0-7-0-04 ; 0-5-0-04 ; 0-42-0-04 ; 0-38-0-04 mm. The straight spiny 

 spindles 0'4-0"04 ; 0'36-0'06 mm. Some short spindles with blunt protuberances 

 measure 0'22-0"08 ; 0'18-0'06 mm. A few four-rayed forms occur, varying from 

 0-36-01 to 0-06-0-06 mm. 



Habitat. — Station 308, Messier Channel; depth, 175 fathoms ; bottom, mud. 



Genus Bellonella, Gray. 



Bellonella, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. x. p. 148, 1862. 

 Gereopsis, Saville Kent, Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., N.S., vol. x. p. 397, 1870. 

 Iphethyrus, W. Koch, Neue Anthozoen, Marburg, 1886. 

 Nidalia {pars), Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1835, pt. 3, p. 60. 



Bellonella hocagei (S. Kent) (PI. XXXVII. fig. 2 ; PI. XLII. fig. 7). 



Cereopds hocagei, S. Kent, loc. cit., pi. xxi. figs. 5-13. 

 Iphethyrus speciosus, W. Koch, loc. cit., fig. 3. 



Nidalia ailantica, Studer, Monatsber. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, 1878, p. 635, Taf i. 

 fig. 5, a, h, c. 



Specimens of this species were found off the Azores ; the specimens vary somewhat in 

 size, and the polyps are in various stages of contraction, in some cases being completely 

 withdrawn, so as not to resemble the description or figures given by Saville Kent. The 

 genus was originally established by Dr. Gray for a species from Australia. 



(zool. chall. EXP. — PART Lxiv. — 1889.) Sss 31 



