SUBORDER ALCYONARIA. 619 



Tonga specimens were of a purplish-brown colour. The polyps were 

 minute and about a line apart. There are no verrucas when the ani- 

 mal is wholly retracted. The specimens consist of an aggregation of 

 erect, broad, lobed plates, a fourth to a third of an inch thick, and they 

 cover areas of several feet in extent. 



Alcyonum virick, Quoy & Gaymard, Voy. de I'Ast., iv. 272, pi. 23, figs. 21-23. The 

 figure represents a branch, .separated from the base of the zoophyte. 



11. ALCYONIUM FLABELLUM. (Quoy 4- Gaymard.) 



A. grande, submolle, ramis compressis, digitato-divisis, et ramosis, digi- 

 tationibus scepe 2-3" longis, teretibus aut compressis, subacutis out ob- 

 tusis, 3-5'" crassis. 



Large, rather soft; branches compressed, digitately subdivided and 

 ramose; digitations often 2 to 3 inches long, terete or compressed, 

 subacute or obtuse, 3 to 5 lines thick. 



Port Carteret, New Ireland. Quoy 4- Gaymard. Tongatabu. 

 Exp. Exp. 



The digitations in this species are much longer and more tapering, 

 and the branches not nearly so broad as in the viride. New branches 

 may be often seen to begin as small protuberances from the lateral 

 surface. The colour is a dull purple, as represented by Quoy and 

 Gaymard. The Tonga specimens were of a grayish flesh-colour, with 

 the polyps about a line apart and yellowish-green. As in the pre- 

 ceding, there are no verrucas when the polyps are contracted. 



Alcyonum fiabcllum, Quoy and Gaymard, Voy. de I'Ast., iv. 273, pi. 23*, figs. 18-20. 



12. ALCYONIUM FLEXILE. (Quoy $ Gaymard.) 



A. grande, permolle, pallide fulvum, fruticosum. stipitatum ; ramis n 

 merosis, gradlibus, 2-2.]'" crassis, subsimplicibus, subattenuatis, fl ( 

 ilibus, scepe 2-2]" longis, poly pis parv ulis, crebris. 



Large, very soft, pale fulvous, fruticose, stipitate; branchlets nume- 



nu- 

 ex- 



