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



lu general terms we may describe the Cornularidaj as a starting point frf>ir> whence 

 the higher orders of Alcyonaria have been differentiated. 



The following genera have been hitherto distinguished : — 



Rhizoxenia, Ehrbg. 

 Cornvlaria, Lam. 

 Clavularia, Quoy and Gaim. 

 Sarcodictyon, Forbes. 

 Cyathopodium, Verrill. 

 Sclera at Ji el ia, Studer. 

 A n thojiodi mn, Verrill . 



Gymnosarca, Sav. Kent. 

 Telesto, Lamx. 

 Pseudogorgia, Koll. 

 Ccelogorgia, M.-Edw. 

 Anthelia, Sav. 

 Sympodiwm, Ehrbg. 

 Erythropodium, Koll. 



Cornulariella, Verrill. | CalJipodium, Verrill. 



Many of the sj^ecies of these genera are shallow-water forms, and the Challenger 

 collection includes only representatives of Clavidaria, Telesto, and Sympodiuw, of 

 which several new species are described. We add to these a description of the hitherto 

 very insufficiently known Ccelogorgia palmosa, M.-Edw., of which we had fresh 

 specimens from Madagascar. 



Genus Clavularia, Quoy and Gaimard. 



Clavularia, Quoy et Gaim. cf. Blainville, Diet. d. Sci. Nat., vol. Ix. p. 499, 1820. 



„ Milne-Edwards et J. Haime, Distrib. method. Polyp, foss. des terr. pala30z., p. 180. 



„ Milne-Edwards, Hist. Nat. des Coralliaires, p. 106. 



,, Studer, Aloyou. der " Gazelle," Monatsber. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wi.ss. Berlin, 



October 1878, p. 6.32. 

 wm „ Ducli. et Mich., Corall. d<-i .iiitilu/-. r, ■ Kdlliker, Icon. Histiol., 7iec %. Koch, ]\[orpli. 



Jahrb., Bd. vii. 



This genus was first established by Quoy and Gaimard for a Cornularid from the 

 Pacific, and was briefly defined by Blainville {loc. cit.) as including Cornularia-like 

 polyps in which the body- wall exhibited externally longitudinal ribs, and was encrusted 

 with long navicular spicules. The polyps were said to be mutually united by stolons. 



For the reception of species in which the polyps were seated on a basal membrane, 

 Studer (loc. cit.) widened the generic diagnosis, and included within the genus those 

 species in which the colony was crustaceous, the polyps having retractile tentacles, 

 their outer walls being ribbed and furnished with .spindle-shaped spiny spicules, the 

 mutual connection being by stolons or by a basal membrane. 



The polj^p of Clavularia consists of a more or less elongated rigid calyx, and of a 

 wide anterior portion which includes the tentacular and oesophageal regions, and which 

 may l)e completely retracted within the calyx. The margins of the calyx close round 

 the invaginated portion, forming an eight-rayed star. The wall of the calyx exhibits 



