449 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Oil Antliozoa;itlius parasiticus, Desha i/es,'^Ii^. (Algiers.) 

 By H. J. Caetku, F.K.S. (In a letter to Dr. J, E. Guay.) 



This coral is figured, but not described, in Sclileidcn, ' Das 3Ieer,' 

 fig. 4. 



Spicules calcareous, fusiform, tubercidated, some narrow, others 

 thick, variable in length ; the longest of the former l-0(»th, the 

 longest of the latter 1-lsuth of an inch ; the narrow ones chiefly con- 

 fined to the polypes, arranged obliquely (? ) and parallel, embracing ; 

 the thicker ones arranged horizontally {'.'), interlocking with each 

 other, as if formed in cells of this shape originally interlocking with 

 each other ; composing the greater part of the mass or cortex, Avhich 

 is parasitic upon a small, horny, branched stem. 



As the narrow spicules are chiefly confined to the polypes, so 

 these arc the spicules which are chiefly coloured — red and yellow 

 mixed in one of the specimens (the red-), and yellow only in the other 

 (the yellow-polyped specimen), the red and yellow colours of their 

 points respectively being thus produced. 



The tubercles on the narrow fusiform spicules are more or less 

 evenly scattered over the surface (a), from one end to the other, while 

 those of the thicker ones are arranged in three or more bands or 



&L 



rings, whh plain intervals or rings (ii) between them constricted ; 

 or the tubercles may be an-anged irregularly throughout the shaft 

 (c), whose extremities are also always tuberculated. 



The two specimens, viz, the red- and A'cUow-polyped, are the 

 same species. 



It seems to me that the longer fusiform spicules gonerally run np 

 round the polype, perhaps obHquely extending into the base of the 

 tentacles. 



Xotes on ilyriosteou. By II. J. Carter, F.R.S. 



(In a letter to Dr. J. E. Grav.) 



I can find no note in my journal of the piece of Myriosteon I 

 took out from a Bavs nose on the south-east coast of Arabia — 



