436 Verrill, JVotes on liacUata. 



of the coenencliyma, wliicli are t'lose together and have a slightly 

 raised border. From one of the holes tlie tentacles are protruded ; 

 from the other, the posterior end of the body. Tlie lower part of the 

 tube, bent into a U-shaped form, is more or less deeply excavated in 

 the substance of the axis. 



2. — VerruccB scarcely prominent. Cells opening ouhvard, with the lower lip little de- 

 veloped. 



Muricea robnsta Verriii. 



My/ricea robusta Verrill, Bulletin Museum of Comp. ZooL, p. 36, 1864; {2Mrs) Proc. 

 Boston Soc. Nat. Hist, vol. x, p. 329, 186G. 



Plate VII, figure 3. Plate VIII, figure 9. 



Corallum brown, irregularly dicliotomous, wnth few, stout, mostly 

 crooked branches, pretty closely covered by the rather large, imequal 

 cells, which have the border l)ut little elevated. 



Wlien young it rises as a simple, clavate, often crooked stem to the 

 height of 2 or 3 inches, attaining a diameter of "So to '40 near the 

 summit, which is bluntly rounded. Larger specimens usually divide 

 within I'S inches from the base, the main branches again forking with- 

 in an inch of their origin, and the resulting branches are irregularly 

 once or twice dichotomous. The branchlets are irregular, crooked, 

 arising from '5 to 2 inches apart, spreading at tlieir origin in a broad 

 curve, stout and rigid, of nearly uniform size througliout, tlie ends 

 obtusely rounded. Verrucix? upon the branches and trunk inconspicu- 

 ous, consisting of a slightly elevated margin around the rather large 

 and conspicuous cells, which are crowded over the whole surlace and 

 open outward. Toward the ends of the branchlets the verruca^ be- 

 come more prominent by reason of the greater development of the low- 

 er border of the cells, which forms a concave, semi-circular, or crescent- 

 shaped lower lip, with a somewhat thickened and obtuse edge, the 

 surface scabrous and granulous witli snnxll rough spicula. Coenenchy- 

 ma thick, and granulous with small spicula. Axis in the branches 

 black and scarcely compressed at the axils, brown and rigid in the 

 branchlets. Color dull yellowish brown. 



Height of largest specimen 8*5 inches ; breadth 4 ; diameter of 

 trunk '40 ; of branchlets '35 ; of largest verrucse •06 ; length of lower 

 lip, when longest, "04. 



Spicula orange-brown and light yellow, quite small for the genus, 

 but very rough, the larger ones consisting in great part of stout, irreg- 

 ular, thorny chibs. The longer spindles are rather slender, irregular, 

 the sides closely covered with very rough unequal warts, one end often 



