444 Verrill, Notes on Radiata. 



Muricea davata ( G-onigoria clavatu Gray)* appears to be closely 

 allied to this species, and may prove identical upon actual comparison. 

 The specimen described and figured is evidently young, consisting of 

 a simple clavate stem, as in the yoimg of many other species of 

 Muricea. Its locality is unknown and the description is not sufficiently 

 detailed to determine whether it be identical with this or not. 



b. — CoRnenchyma rather thin; branchlets slender: 



Miiricea appressa Verriii. 



Gorgonia plantaginea Val., Voyage de la Venus, Zooph., PI. 15, 1846,f (wore Lamarck). 

 Muricea appressa Verrill, Bulletin Museum Comp. Zool., p 37, Jan., 1864 ; Proc. 



Boston Soc. Nat. Hist, vol. x, p. 329, 1866. 

 Eunicea Tahogensis Duch. and Mich., Supl. Corall. des Antilles, p. 17, Tab. 3, fig. 5 



and 6 (after May, 1864), in Mem. Reale Acoo.d. Sci., Torino, xxiii, p. Ill, 1866. 



Plate VIII, figure 13. 



Corallum deep brown, sometimes yellowish white, flabellifonn, much 

 subdivided, with small, closely apprcssed verrucse. 



When young the corallum is quite slender ; the small trunk divides 

 within a quarter or half an inch from the base into two or three main 

 branches, each of which usually forks again within about a quarter 

 inch, and the resulting branches subdivide irregularly in a dichoto- 

 mous or sub-pinnate manner, so that specimens 2*5 inches high often 

 have more than twenty branchlets, all of which are quite slender and 

 nearly equal in diameter Tiie large sj^jccimens are usually very nu- 

 merously branched, all the branches standing nearly in one plane, the 

 principal branches mostly sub-pinnate, often secund. The branchlets 

 usually arise at '25 to '50 of an inch apart, and, after curving outward 

 a little at base, rise nearly parallel with the branch from which they 

 originate ; they are usually quite slender, flexible, mostly 1 to 6 inches 

 long, varying considerably in diameter in different specimens. The 

 verrucae are quite small, crowded, closely imbricated, with the lower 

 lip much elongated and incui'ved, so as to conceal the cells, usually 

 closely appressed, but not invariably so ; their surface is scabrous, 

 covered with small, short, and very rough spicula, the ends but slightly 

 projecting. Coenenchyma thin, very little exposed, except on the base 

 and main branches, covered with small rough spicula and slender 

 spindles. Axis black at base and in the larger branches, finely stri- 

 ated longitudinally and usually compressed, especially at the axils, 



* Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1851 ; Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History, vol. 3, page 422, 1859. 



f The figure represents a coarse, poorly grown specimen. Spicula from the original 

 tj'pe agree with those of our typical form, — Reprint. 



