27 



a stub of a branch 4 cm. from its proximal end and bifurcates about 1 2 cm. from its base. 

 The main branches bifurcate 10.5 cm. above their origin and continue to divide dichotomously 

 until branchings of the 8 th order are attained. The ultimate twigs are very long and slender, 

 sometimes 60 cm. long, with an average diameter of 3.5mm. The branches and twigs are all 

 erect and proximately parallel, and are very numerous, there being considerably over 100. The 

 coenenchyma is thin, and the main branches are without calyces and often denuded of ccenen- 

 chyma. The calyces are distributed on all sides of the smaller branches and twigs. There is 

 no evidence of a median groove in the dried specimen, and the calyces are so shrunken in 

 the type that they can not be studied in a satisfactory manner. At the distal ends of the 

 twigs the coenenchyma is so shrunken that a cross section is sometimes triangular and some- 

 times quadrangular. 



A cross section of a small branch shows a rather thin coenenchyma, regularly disposed 

 primary water-vascular canals and axis with a hard amorphous core of limestone and an outer 

 relatively thick investment of concentric layers of partly calcareous and partly horny material. 



S p i c u 1 e s. These are mostly densely tuberculated double heads with the girdle usually 

 quite well marked and seldom entirely obliterated. These intergrade with girdled spindles, 

 double crosses, etc. Regular Greek crosses are also seen, but the most common form, next 

 to the double head, is the double cross. Simple spindles and clubs are rarely seen. 



Color. The dried colony is a rather light reddish brown or terra cotta. It was probably 

 bright red in life. The spicules are an orange yellow. 



This is by far the largest gorgonellid in the collection, and must have been a truly 

 magnificent specimen when alive. 



4. Scirpearclla hemisphcrica new species. (Plate V, figs. 2 and 2 a ; Plate X, fig. 6). 

 Stat. 60. Haingsisi,' Samau Island near Timor. 23 meters. 



Colony unbranched, 18 cm. in height. The basal part of the stem is devoid of calyces 

 and is 2.2 cm. in diameter. 5 cm. from its base the colony seems to have been forked and 

 one of the braches broken off short. Above this point the stem is bare for 2.6 cm., and but 

 1.2 mm. in diameter across the polypiferous portion. The calyces are very irregularly but rather 

 closely scattered on all sides of the stem with a tendency toward a more compact arrangement 

 on the sides. 



The individual calyces are regularly hemispherical or dome-shaped, varying greatly in 

 size. One of the larger ones is 1.7 mm. in height and 2.3mm. in diameter at its base. They 

 are so completely closed by the strong contraction of the polyps that the openings are seen 

 with difficulty, but appear to be somewhat inclined toward the distal end of the colony. The 

 distal end of the polyp body is filled with a mosaic of spicules in the form of double heads 

 and double spindles, and these run out over the basal portions of the tentacles in broad bands 

 which appear conspicuously on the tentacles after the polyp has been dissected away from the 

 calyx, the red spicules contrasting with the yellowish polyp. 



