SUBORDER ALCYONARIA. 667 



black, flexuously striate, of branchlets setiform, of base often one to 

 two inches thick. 



Indian Ocean. 



This species has been confounded with a smaller one from the 

 West Indies. The Eunicea antipathes, of Ehrenberg, is described 

 by him from a specimen there obtained, and Esper's tab. 23 may be 

 from the same region^ Its very stout trunk and much larger size are 

 the only distinguishing characters which can be drawn from the de- 

 scriptions given. The upper branchlets are very slender. 



A specimen belonging to Dr. Gould, at Boston, answers well to the 

 characters of the above. It is between three and four feet high, with 

 the axis at base nearly two inches thick, and in the upper branchlets, 

 which are six to eight inches long, slender setiform. The axils in the 

 axis, as in Seba's figure, are not broad ; the cortex is cinereous, and 

 the size of the branchlets covered with it is one-eighth of an inch, six 

 inches from the summit. The oscules are minute points, in which 

 it agrees with Esper's account of his tab. 24, though not with Pallas, 

 who describes them as large. 



C',,i-ii/!iniii nigntm, Rumph., Amb., 2016, Gorgonia antipathes, Linn., ed. xii., 1291. 



tab. 77. From the Moluccas. , Pallas, Zooph., 193. " Oceanus 



Pruii'x mai'inits, jircegrandis, &c., Seba, Indicus solus." 



Thes. iii., tab. 104, No. 2. "From , Esper, ii. 90, tab. 24, 25. 



Amboyna and the Moluccas." Crust , Lamk., ii. 502, No. 36. 



nsh-coloured or reddish, and very de- Plezaura antipathes, Lamour., Pol. flex., 



ciduous. The figure represents a den- 434 ; Encyc., 380. 

 droid specimen, with nearly erect branch- 

 lets, and even top, about two feet high. 



58. GORGONIA. HOMOMALLA. (Esper.) Much branched; branches 

 terete, dichotornous, ascending and somewhat nodding ; cortex thick, 

 oscules scattered. 



Mediterranean? Esper. West Indies. Lamarck. 



In Esper's figure (tab. 29), the branch is curved and the branch- 

 lets are crowded on the inner side of it ; the size of the branchlets is 

 three to four inches in length, and one. and a half to two lines in thick- 

 ness ; the cortex is black, and the oscules are round points. 



13. cinerea. Reddish, yellowish, or ash-coloured, and nearly or quite 

 erect, branches and branchlets much crowded, of the same size as 

 above-mentioned, with the oscules similarly small punctures and 

 crowded ; axis of the branchlets retiform and yellowish-brown; axils 

 compressed ; cortex thick and caducous. 



