Dr. J. E. Gray on new Alcyonoid Corals. 441 
at the terminus on the Boulevard Mazas, the Haplochili had 
gasped their last, and could only be said to have just reached 
Paris to die. I have wondered several times since, what be- 
came of these two. They were good specimens; their colours 
were not as bright as if, instead of being choked or drowned 
in water, they had been drowned or choked in spirits ; but the 
bottle had on it a label with their name and country, and I 
left it behind me in the railway carriage.” 
Thus my experiment failed; but I doubt not that, with a 
little more care, it would have succeeded ; and I feel sure that 
ere long this pretty freshwater fish will be brought into France, 
and so make its way into England. The intelligent and ener- 
getic officers in charge of the mails between Réunion and Paris 
have many facilities tor carrying this project into effect ; and as 
there is only three days of the three weeks’ journey to be 
~ accomplished by rail, the difficulties of railway transit are not 
insurmountable. My belief is that this little fish would be- 
come a great favourite in this country. I would commend the 
subject to the consideration of M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, the 
able Secretary of the Jardin d’Acclimatation of Paris. With 
such zealous assistants as he has in my friends Capt. Rappatel 
of the ‘ Krymanthe,’ and M. Richard, Agent de |’ Administra- 
tion des Postes, he need experience no difficulty in having 
brought to Paris any of the land or freshwater vertebrates to 
be met with in the islands off the east coast of Africa. 
LVIII.—Deseriptions of some new Genera and Species of Al- 
cyonotd Corals in the British Museum. By Dr. J. EK. Gray, 
PRS VPA S., &e: 
SOME years ago we received from Mr. Jukes some animals in 
spirits. Amongst these is a fleshy Aleyonoid, which lives on 
the naked axis of a Gorgonia apparently belonging to a 
genus and species that I have not before seen described. Un- 
fortunately the specimen has no habitat attached to it, and it 
is not in a very good state; so I have been waiting in hope of 
another specimen arriving in a better condition and with its 
locality stated; but being now engaged in naming the unde- 
termined species of this group, I shall proceed to describe 
it. 
This Aleyonoid has much resemblance to the genus Neph- 
thya; but it differs in the slenderness of the branches and 
branchlets, the distance between the polypes, and the outer 
surface of the polypes being entirely destitute of fusiform and 
other spicules. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. ii. 31 
