460 Zoological Society : — 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



May 26, 185/.— Dr. Gray, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. 



On the Animal and Bark of the genus Antipathes. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., F.L.S., V.P.Z. and Ent. Soc. etc. 



In the ' Proceedings ' of the Society for 1832, p. 41, I described 

 for the first time the bark and animal of Antipathes dichotoma from 

 Madeira. 



It is to be observed that this species has been separated from the 

 others of the genus because the surface of the axis is smooth and 

 not covered with a number of minute, uniform, cyUndrical spines 

 like the true Antipathes, and has been called for that reason Leio- 

 pathes ; and it has been further stated, that though Leiopathes has 

 a distinct bark and animal like GorgoniaclcB, this may not be the 

 case with the normal species of the genus, some of which have been 

 described by Ellis as having a very peculiar kind of animal. 



To set this question at rest, I have carefully examined all the spe- 

 cimens of Antipathes which have come under my observation, and 

 have failed to discover any traces of a bark or remains of any kind 

 of animal matter on their surface, until a few days ago, when Mr. 

 Samuel Stevens brought to the ^Museum a very fine specimen of a 

 long simple-stemmed Antipathes from the Seychelles, which appears 

 to be a new species, allied to A. sjnralis, if more than a very fine 

 straight specimen of that species. 



This specimen is entirely covered from near the expanded base 

 to the apex (except at certain parts where the surface has been ac- 

 cidentally abraded) with a very distinct bark or animal covering. 



The bark is continuous, completely hiding the spinules of the sur- 

 face of the axis, smooth, and showing a number of thicker, browner, 

 irregular-shaped plates ou the surface, which are separated from each 

 other in some places only by narrow crack-like grooves, and at others 

 by a considerable distance ; and there is no appearance, in the dry 

 state, as far as I can detect, of any apertures for the emission of the 

 heads of the polypes. 



The bark in its dry state is tough and rather rigid ; when 

 soaked in water, it becomes thick, coriaceous externally, and fleshy 

 within ; when soaked in a solution of potash, the harder plates 

 appeared to be formed of a rather convex horny plate of irregular 

 shape and rather twisted ou the surface, and the other part of the 

 bark is scattered with groups of very small, uniform-sized, regular- 

 shaped, oblong plates, of a somewhat similar consistence and colour. 



The hard parts of the bark are quite distinct in form and ap- 

 pearance from the spiculce of the Goryoniadce. They are hard and 

 brittle, not soluble in strong muriatic acid, nor are they affected by 

 a strong solution of caustic potass. They are most probably siliceous. 



