568 A. JEJ. Verrill — Anthozoa and Hydrozoa of the Bermudas. 



ALCYONARIA. 



GORGONACEA. 



Lists of the Gorgonacea have been published by J. M. Jones, 

 J. D. Dana, Heilprin, and others, but none of them are very com- 

 plete. Heilprin gives nine species, but two of them are probably 

 mere varieties. The following valid species are in Heilprin's list 

 (Bermuda Is., p. 103). 



Gorgonia jiahellum Linn. Sea-fan. 



Gorgonia acerosa (?) Pallas. Purple sea-plume. 



Gorgonia Americana Gmel. (Recorded by Dana.) Sea-plume. 



Plexaura flexuosa Lamx. Sea-rod. 



This is one of the largest as well as the most common species. It 

 becomes two feet or more broad and often three feet or more high, 

 with a very large main stem, two or three inches in diameter. The 

 branches are furcate with very numerous terminal branchlets, 4 to 

 gmm jj^ diameter. The calicles are small, round, not crowded, with 

 the borders only very slightly raised or not all so. Color in life, 

 dull dark purple or grayish brown ; when dried usually purple-brown, 

 often brownish yellow, or a combination between these colors. 



Plexaura homonialla (Esp.) Lamx. Black sea-rod. 



Plexaurella crassa (Ellis and Sol.) Jjdimx. ^=multicauda Heilp. Sea- 

 rod or sea-whip. 



See pi. Ixix, fig. 4. Remarkable for the very large size and ele- 

 gance of the polyps, which cannot be retracted ; but in life they 

 completely conceal the coral and make it look like a soft branching 

 sponge. The pores are large, open, and close together when dry. 



Plexaurella dichotoma (Esp.) Kolliker. 



Easily recognized by its long, stout cylindrical or digitate 

 branches, covei-ed with very irregulai'ly shaped jjores, which may 

 be narrow-oblong, elliptical, oval, or circular, with the long axis in 

 various directions and with lips only slightly raised or not at all. 



The Gorgonia purpurea and G. pseudo-antipathes of Heilprin's 

 list are indeterminable. The former is probably the purple variety 

 of Plexaura flexuosa. 



Gorgonia turgida (Ehr.) Verrill, has been recorded from Bermuda 

 by the present writer (Amer. Journ. Sci., xlviii, p. 424, 1869). 



