SUBORDER ALCYONARIA. 649 



5. G. PTEROGORGIA THOMASIENSIS. (Ehrenberg.) Low (four inches 

 high), violaceous; sparingly ramose; branches simple, two-edged, 

 erect, uniformly three inches long, less than a line broad at apex. 



Island of St. Thomas, West Indies. Ehrenberg. 



Ptcrogorgia Sancti Thonife, Ehrenberg, G. Ixxxv., sp. 5, states that it differs from 

 the pinnata in not being pinnate, and has the habit of the fasciolaris ; moreover, there 

 is a third series of polyps. % 



6. G. PTEROGORGIA ACEROSA. (Esper.) Ehrenberg. Yellowish; ra- 

 mulous, nearly flabellate, pinnate; pinnules subopposite, compressed, 

 one to one and a half lines broad ; polyps arranged seriately along the 

 margin, in either single or double series; oscules very minute (hardly 

 one-fourth of a line long), and crowded ; axis of branches and branch- 

 lets nearly black. 



This species, though very similar to the setosa in its pendulous 

 habit, when full grown, has its branchlets much more flattened. The 

 polyps on the pinnules are sometimes nearly regularly uniseriate, and 

 often in two distinct series. The oscules are minute and much 

 crowded, three of them hardly occupying a line in length. The pin- 

 nules are very crowded, occurring every two to four lines, and are 

 about a line wide and a third of a line thick. 



West Indies. 



Gorgonia acerosa, Esper, ii. 106, tab. 31. 



Pterogorgia acerosa, Ehrenberg, G. Ixxxv., sp. 2. "Quadripedalis, flava, ramuloso- 

 pinnata, pinnis strictiusculis, flexuosis, nee planfe oppositis, 6-7" longis, 1'" latis, com- 

 pressis, planis." 



Gorgonia pinnata, in part, of Lamarck, Lamouroux, and Blainville (see the setosa}. 



7. G. PTEROGORGIA PINNATA. (Ellis.) Yellowish, ramulous, pin- 

 nate, pinnules subopposite, much compressed and complanate, one to 

 one and a quarter lines broad, not pendulous, four to six inches long ; 

 polyps marginal, in one or two series, large; axis of branchlets of a 

 very pale yellowish colour. 



The branches as well as branchlets are very much flattened, more 

 so than in the acerosa; the polyps are much larger than in that 

 species, three in the same series, in the specimen examined by the 

 author, occupying a length of nearly two lines. The axis of the 

 branchlets is capillary and nearly colourless. 



Gorg. pinnata, Ellis and Solander, 87, tab. ciently crowded, a little too broad, and 

 14, fig. 3. The branchlets are not suffi- the polyps rather too distant. 



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