Dr. J. E. Gray on a new Species of Paragorgia. 125 



their origin to the mutual reaction of the simple organic material 

 and the surrounding fluid ? Chemistry demonstrates how very 

 materially substances are affected by the chemical taking up of 

 water ; and there is good evidence to show that organized tissue 

 may be very greatly modified in its chemico-vital endowments by 

 contact with water and other fluids, and that the formation of a 

 pellicle or film around it is no proof of the histogenetic indepen- 

 dence of this film as a tunic. These inquiries ai-e further sug- 

 gested by Auerbach's researches, according to which a membrane 

 encloses and limits the whole simple substance or sarcode of the 

 AmoebeEe, although all the phenomena of variability, of adhesion, 

 and of confluence of their processes proclaim the contrary. In 

 reference to these researches we will finally ask, Do not the very 

 means resorted to in order to detect the existence of a limiting 

 membrane concur to produce a pellicle which may be mistaken 

 for the independent structure sought for ? — J. T. A.] 



XIV. — Notice of a second Species of Paragorgia discovered in 

 Madeira by Mr. James Yate Johnson. By Dr. J. E. Gray, 

 P.tt.S. 



Mr. James Yate Johnson, along with' a large and most in- 

 teresting collection of fish from Madeira, has sent to the British 

 Museum a very fine and large specimen of Paragorgia. 



The species on which the genus is established is found on the 

 coast of Norway, and is the subject of an elaborate memoir, 

 illustrated by excellent figures, by Kolreuter, in the ' Novi 

 Commentarii Acad. Petrop.' 1758 & 1759, p. 345, tab. 13, 14, 

 15 & 16. 



It was first described and figured by Clusius (Exotic, p. 119), 

 who gives a good figure of the stem, and who received it from 

 Norway. 



It is well described by Pontoppidan (Norges Natuurlige His- 

 toric, i. No. 12. fig. 5). He figures two varieties, one much 

 more slender than the other. 



It is also well described and figured by Esper, Pflanzen- 

 thiere, iii. 10, 1. 1 a, with yellow, and t. 1 & 1 b, with redder bark. 



All these works describe the polypes as congregated in short, 

 roundish tuberculiform branches on the large, slightly branched 

 main stem. 



The specimen from Madeira resembles the Norwegian speci- 

 mens in many characters, especially in the thickness and com- 

 pressed form of the main stem ; but it differs from that species 

 in being studded with numerous slender, repeatedly-divided 

 branches, which are covered on the upper surface with numerous 



