248 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGEE. 



capitulum is in too ragged a state to admit of any very exact measurements.) Where it 

 arises from the column it has a diameter of 4 mm., but this thins out to one scarcely 

 exceedino- i mm. at the very edge, which is slightly everted. The outer coating of 

 the capitulum is very thin, with small feebly developed sj)iny spindles (clubs), and the 

 gelatinous mesoderm of the polyp tubes is thin. The surface is smooth. 



The autozooids are scattered all over the upper portion of the capitulum, being very 

 crowded around the edges ; they are filled with ova. As usual they are completelj' 

 retractile, though most of those on the specimen were killed while expanded, which is 

 apparently an unusual phenomenon among species of this genus. There is a collaret of 

 minute rod-like spicules, with a few lateral spines on each, surrounding the bases of the 

 tentacles of the polyps. 



The siphonozooids are numerous, scattered all over the capitulum, between the 

 autozooids. 



The colour in spirits is a dull brown, but the polyps contain numerous Zoanthella, 

 which may have given the capitulum in life a greenish-yellowish hue. 



The large tuberculated spicules of the sterile stem, which are often branched and 

 sometimescurved, measure 17-0 -2 ; I'S-Q-IS; M-O-IS; 1-0-12 ; 0-9-0-06 mm. There 

 are also some nearly smooth spindles, measuring O'9-O'l ; 0'6-0'8 mm.; and a few spiny 

 spindles, with tuberculated heads, mea.suring 0'26-0'04 ; 0'24-0"06 ; 0"2-0'04 mm. In 

 the capitulum the spiny sj)iudles closely resemble stachelkeulen, the spiny broadened 

 heads being well marked,— these measure 0-24-002 ; 0-2-0-02 ; 0-08-0-02 ; O-OG-0-02 ; 

 0'02-0"01 mm. Some four-rayed forms are interspersed, measuring 0"06-0"06 and 

 0'04-0'04 mm. In the polyp, curved and straight, smooth, or very fully spined spindles 

 occur, measuring 0-6-0-02; 0-34-0-02 ; 0-18-0-02 ; 0-16-0-06 mm. In the tentacles 

 some lenticulate forms occur, which measure "06-0 "02 and '04-0 "02 mm. 



Habitat. — Banda. 



There is a specimen in the Paris Museum, somewhat resembling this in external 

 shape, with a label " Sarcophyton lohulosum. Less., Seychelles; Rousseau, 1842," but 

 the spicules are quite different. 



Sarcophytum glaucum, Q. and G. (PI. XLII. fig. 2). 



Sareophytum glaucum, Quoy and GaimarJ, Voyage de I'Astrolabe, t. iv. p. 270, Zoophytes, 

 pi. xxii. figs. 11, 12. 



The colony is attached to a mass of coral rock. It is of very irregular outline, with a 

 base of nearly 70 mm. in diameter. 



The column is almost hidden by the folding downwards of the lobes of the capitulum ; 

 it is however distinct, of irregular outline, adhering to the inequalities of a piece of coral 



