Verrill, Notes on Badiata. 385 



lie sub-divides the genus, liowever, into tliree groujis, as follows: 



1. Speeies having only spindle-slniped spicida. 



2. Species having spindles and braeket-sliaped spicula (Khunmeru). 



3. Species having spindles, and in a peculiar external layei-, singu- 

 lar club-shaped spicula. 



The last group contains G. verrucosa and closely allied species, and 

 corresponds partly with Gorgonia as restricted l)y jVIilne Edwards. 

 It appears to be a very natural and well-defined group, approaching, 

 by its smooth external layer composed of club-sha])ed spicula, the 

 genus Eunicea. All the ascertained species belong to the Mediter- 

 ranean and African coasts.* 



The second section is also a natural and clearly detined group, cor- 

 responding to a great extent with Gorgonia and Pterogorgla of 

 Ehrenberg, though a few species of the latter go into the first section 

 (P. sarmentosa 'And JR. petechizans). It includes the typical species 

 of Pterogorgla, jLiphigorgla, and PPymenogorgia of Edwards and 

 Haime, and two species of Leptogorgia, as well as the type of lild- 

 ptidogorgia Val. [H.Jiabellwn). All the species, so far as known to 

 me, are Atlantic, and nearly all are confined to the West Indies and 

 Atlantic coasts of North and South America, not one having yet been 

 found upon the Pacific coast of America. 



The first section, however, appears to include several natural groups, 

 two of which appear quite as distinct as the two preceding. Among 

 the species enumerated by Dr. Kolliker are several species referred by 

 Edwards and Haime to Gorgonia, Rhipidogorgia, Gorgonella, Lep- 

 togorgia, Pterogorgla, and the typical species of Lophogorglo. 



The numerous species of Gorgoniw from the west coast of Amer- 

 ica, would all fall into the first of Dr. Kolliker's sections, but among 

 them there are two well-defined groups, characterized l)est by pecul- 

 iarities of the spicula, each including numerous species. 



In the first of these divisions the spicula of the coenenchyma are 

 mostly small, warty or papillose doiible-spindlesf of two kinds, — a 

 longer and more slender sort, mingled with those that are shorter and 

 thicker. {Litlgorgla, V.). 



In the second division there are, in addition to the two forms of 

 double-spindles, a large number of " double-wheels," or short snicula 



* G. papulosa Esper, formerly supposod to be from the East Indies, was collected at 

 the Cape of Good Hope by the United States Exploring Expedition (Coll. Smithsonian 

 Inst, and Yale Museum). 



f Those spicula havinj,' a fusiform shape, more or less pointed at the ends, with a 

 narrower and usually smooth space in the middle, are termed " double-spindles " (Dop- 

 pelspindeln) by Dr. Kolliker. Those witliout the median constriction arc " spindles." 



