Verrill, Notes on Radiata. 407 



The polyp-spicula are small, slender spindles. The axis is horny. 

 Branches either ronnd or compressed, variously subdivided, much as 

 in Le2>to(/or</ia, surface finely g-ranulous. Cells mostly in a band 

 along each side of the ))ranches, sometimes i^rominent, usually flat. 



A. — Flabslliform, branches subparaUel, dkhotomous, usually slout. Cells flat or very 

 slightly raised. 



Eugorgia ampla Verriu. 



Leptogorgia ampla Verrill, Bulletin M. C. Z., p. 32, 1864. 



Plate V, figure 12. Plate VI, figure 6. 



Corallum large, flabelliform, with numerous elongated, subparallel 

 branches and branchlets. Several main branches, which are larsre, 

 rounded or slightly compressed, and nearly equal, arise from close to 

 the base, the lateral ones curving out at first and then becoming 

 uj^right and nearly parallel. The brandies give oif from each side 

 distant, long, and often slightly flexuous, branches and branchlets, 

 which bend outward and then become parallel like the main branches. 

 The branchlets are rigid, from 2 to 6 inches long without dividing, and 

 but little more slender than the branches from which they arise, 

 usually slightly compressed and tapering but little to the obtuse ends. 

 They arise from 1 to 3 inches apart and are often alternate, but at 

 other times only arise from one side of the branch. The coenenchyma 

 is quite thick and firm, granulous at the surface. The cells are flat, 

 very numerous, crowdedly arranged in two broad lateral bands, sep- 

 arated by a very narrow, naked median space, which forms a slight 

 groove. The cells are usually so contracted as to appear very small 

 and inconspicuous, but when the surface is removed they are seen to 

 be rather large, oval, and so closely arranged that they are separated 

 only by thin walls. The axis is horn-like, blackish in the main branch- 

 es, but in the branchlets amber-yellow and translucent. Color, in the 

 typical specimens, bright yellow, in the variety light purple. The 

 largest specimens are 1 8 inches high and nearly as broad ; diameter 

 of the main branches 'SO; of the branchlets at base -12; at tips -10. 



Spicula, in the typical sp eiiuens, bright yellow. Long double- 

 spindles very acute, distantly warted, with about three wreaths of 

 warts on each end, those next the middle much the largest ; median 

 space wide. Shorter double spindles obtuse and more densely covered 

 with warts. Double-wheels nearly or quite as broad as long, the 

 "Avheels" large, rather thin, their edges often acute; median space 

 narrow; axis small. Tlie ends of the axis are also terminated by 

 small, thin, wheel-like disks. The polyp-spicula are of several kinds, 



Trans. Conxecticut Acad, Vol. I. 52 July, 18G8. 



