37 



This table shows that the collection contained six genera, one of which is new and 

 nineteen species, eight of which are new. The genus Melitodes has the largest representation, 

 with six species, half of which are new ; and Acabaria comes nexth with five species, two of 

 which are new. 



Systematic description of genera and species. 

 Genus MelitodeS Verrill. 



Isis (in part) Linnaeus. Systema Naturae, I2th edition, 1767, p. 1287. 



/sis (in part) Ellis and Solander. Natural History of Zoophytes, 1786, p. 104. 



Isis (in part) Pallas. Elenchus Zoophytorum, 1766, p. 230. 



Isis (in part) Esper. Die Pflanzenthiere, 1791, Vol. I, p. 29. 



Melitea Lamarck. Memoires Museum nat. hist., I, 1815, p. 410. 



Militea Lamouroux. Hist. Polyp, flex., 1816, p. 458. 



Melitea Lamarck. Hist. nat. Anim. sans Vert., 2, 1836, p. 470. 



Melitluza Milne Edwards et Haime. Hist. Nat. des Coralliaires, I, 1857, p. 199. 



Melitodes Verrill. Bull. Museum of Comp. Zool., 1864, p. 38. 



Melitella Gray. Proc. Zool. Society of London, 1859, p. 485. 



Melitlicza (in part) Kolliker. Icones Histiologicae, II, 2, p. 142. 



Melitodes Studer. Versuch eines Systemes der Alcyonaria, 1887, p. 31. 



Melitodes (in part) Wright and Studer. Challenger Reports, the Alcyonaria, 1889, p. 171. 



Melitodes Bourne. A treatise on Zoology, Part II, Chap. VI, 1900, p. 25. 



Melitodes Delage et Herouard. Traite de Zoology Concrete, 1901, p. 414. 



Melitodes Kiikenthal. Die Gorgonidenfamilie der Melitodidae, 1908, p. 190. 



PALLAS (1766) and other of the earlier writers included the species then known of this 

 genus in the genus Isis. 



LAMARCK (1815) separated the genus Melithaea from Isis, as then known, by a definition 

 which may be translated as follows : 



"Colony fixed, tree-like, composed of a jointed axis and persistent cortical layer. Central 

 axis rooted, branched, formed of stony joints substriated, with spongy and inflated internodes. 

 The cortical layer contains the polyps when fresh, and small cellules when dried". 



LAMARCK (1815) and MILNE EDWARDS and HAIME (1857) give practically the same 

 definition as the above. 



VERRILL, (1865) shows that the name Melithaea is preoccupied, and proposes the present 

 name, Melitodidse, for the family, and STUDER (1887) adopts the name Melitodes for the type 

 genus of the family, in which he has been followed by subsequent writers. STUDER'S definition 

 for the genus may be translated as follows : 



" Melitodes has all joints traversed by longitudinal canals. The spicules of the ccenen- 

 chyma are large warty spindles on the one hand and kneed ('knotige') spindles on the other". 



KUKENTHAL (1908) gives a satisfactory definition which will be adopted here. A somewhat 

 condensed translation is as follows : 



"Colony almost always flabellate, branching, dichotomous, with branches from the 

 nodes. Axis penetrated by water-vascular canals. Coenenchyma variable in thickness and filled 





