SUBORDER ALCYONARIA. 657 



East Indies. Esper. 



This species, of which a specimen is contained in the collections of 

 the Boston Natural History Society, has larger and more irregular 

 branchlets, verruca?, and spaces, than the dathrus. The branchlets 

 are ften very uneven, owing to the unequal scattering of the larger 

 verruca? ; and the spaces are generally oblong upward, and many are 

 half an inch in length. 



Gorgonia umbella, Esper, Pflanz. Fortsetz., ii. 30, tab. 53; the general habit is 

 brought out ; but the branchlets are a little too slender. 



26. GORGONIA VENTILABRUM. (Pallas.) Deep red, reticulate, 

 branches compressed, verrucose. 



East Indies. 



This imperfectly described species is said to have the general habit 

 of the flabellum. Its verrucose surface appears to distinguish it from 

 that species, while the compressed branches separate it from the reti- 

 culum and umbella. 



Go/-goniave?itilabrum,Poi\\as,Zooph., 165. with the ventilabntni of Pallas, is, as re- 



, Lamk., 2d ed., ii. 500, No. 35 f. presented by him, a small reddish species, 



Gorgonia ventalina, Gmelin, Linn., 3808. broader than high, with a verrucose sur- 

 ,Lamour., Pol. flex., 404, and G. ven- face, and the spaces rather large (mostly 



tilabrum, Encyc., 442. a fourth to a tliird of an inch long). 



The Gorgonia ve/ttalina of Esper (Pflanz., The branchlets are not compressed, and 



ii. 20, tab. 1), which he makes identical about half a line thick. 



27. GORGONIA VERRICULATA. (Esper.) Whitish; flabellate, large, 

 throughout coarsely reticulate; spaces mostly six lines broad, branch- 

 lets subterete, nearly one line thick, verrucose and uneven. 



Indian Ocean. 



Gorgonia reticulala, Ellis and Solander, G. verriculata, Lamarck, 2d ed., ii. 489, 



tab. 17. No. 3. 



Gorgonia verriculata, Esper, ii. 124, tab. , Lamouroux, Polyp, flex., 404; Exp. 



35. Meth., 33, pi. 17 ; Encyc., 442. 



NOTE. The Plexaura reticulata of Ehrenberg, appears to belong to this division of 

 the Gorgonias. It is thus described : " Quadripollicaris, alba, densissime ramulosa et re- 

 ticulata, irregulariter flabellata, parva, tenuis, rigida, ramulis sursum curvatis, flexuosis, 

 compressis, 1'" crassis, cortice albo, undique poroso." (Op. cit., Gen. Ixxxiii., sp. 4.) 



II. Flabellate, subrcticulate, or not at all reticulate ; branches not pinnate. 



28. GORGONIA UMBRACULUM. (Lamarck.) Frond red ; flabellate, 

 nearly circular and densely ramulous, subreticulate, ribbed with sub- 

 flexuous or nearly straight branches, about one-third of an inch apart ; 



1G5 



