314 A. E. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands; Coral Reefs. 
slightly eight-lobed when dried, but much more prominent and 
distinctly eight-lobed in life. 
The ccenenchyma is very thick (fig. 162), but the spicules are 
much smaller than in the preceding species. The longitudinal canals 
around the axis are numerous and large. The axis is black and hard 
in the larger branches, but soft, shrinking much in drying, and 
brittle in the smaller branches. 
The branches are forked, very stout, blunt, and large, and form 
somewhat flattened colonies, the terminal branches upright and 
nearly straight. They are up to .65 of an inch or more (10 to 16™™) 
164 
Figure 163.—Euniceopsis grandis. One of the polyps, nearly expanded, much 
enlarged. From life, by the writer. 
Figure 164.—Euniceopsis atra ; a, one of the larger, and b, one of the smaller 
terminal branchlets, nat. size. Phot. by A. H. V. 
in diameter and 6 to 12 inches or more in length, in large specimens. 
The main stalk may be 1 to 2 inches in diameter near the base, and 
the total height of the colony 2 to 3 feet; breadth 1.5 to 2 feet. 
The polyps are large, brownish yellow, and so filled with whitish 
spicules that they appear rather stiff, and contract slowly when dis- 
turbed; the tentacles roll their tips inward, forming a sort of ball, 
which often seems too large to be drawn into the calicles, but can 
be entirely retracted, though slowly. The median part of the ten- 
tacles has two rows of conspicuous slender fusiform spicules arranged 
en chevron (fig. 163), continuous with similar lines on the column ; 
lines of similar but much smaller white spicules extend along the 
pinne, 
It is found, like the last, in strong currents of water, both on the 
outer reefs and on the inner ledges; most commonly in 6 to 20 feet 
or more of water. 
