78 CLASS II. 



made up of stolons, connecting tubes erect, ventricose, striated, each 

 containing a Polyp. Whether the Polyps are retractile or not, does 

 not appear. Comp. genus Evagora PHILIPPI (p. 79). 



Family IV. Halcyonina. Polypary fleshy, spongy, perforated 

 by many canals, and crowded with microscopic calcareous spicula. 

 The Polyps associated in the polypary, retractile, witli tentacles 

 pinnate. 



This family has its name from the genus Alcyonium L. called in 

 Holland Zeeschuim or Zeekurk (sea-foam or sea-cork). Under the 

 genus Alcyonium of LINNAEUS were comprised species which, like 

 Alcyonium SCHLOSSERI, belong to the Molluscs (Ascidice), as SA- 

 VIGNY has shewn ; other species are Bryozoa (Alcyon. gelatinosum). 

 The genus Alcyonium of LAMARCK contains plant-like forms without 

 polyps. To these spongy plants belongs also the genus Alcyonellum 

 QUOY (Euplectella OWEN). Consequently there remain for this 

 family those species alone which LAMARCK has united under the 

 genus Lobularia, and probably it would be well, according to the 

 suggestion of SCHWEIGGER, to reject the name Alcyonium altogether, 

 for the sake of avoiding confusion. 



On the sponges comp. SCHWEIGGER, Handb. der Naturgesch. der skelett- 

 losen ungegliederten Thieve, s. 370 374, B. E. GRANT, in Edirib. Philos. 

 Journ. Vol. xni. p. 333, H. F. LINK, Ueber Pflanzenthiere iiberhaupt und 

 die dazu gerechneten Gewachse besonders. Physik. Abhandl. der Alcad. der 

 Wissensch. zu Berlin a. d. Jahre 1830. s. 109123. 



Alcyonidia MILNE EDW. Polypary simple or ramose, with a 

 basal portion coriaceous, a terminal polypiferous, soft, retractile by 

 invagination within the former. Polyps with tentacles having 

 pinnae, which are hollow, in a single row at the margin, retractile 

 separately. 



Sp. Alcyonidia elegans MILNE EDWARDS, Ann. des. Sc. not. ie Ser. iv. 1835. 

 PP- 3 2 3 333- PI- I2 > T 3- I n the Mediterranean at Algiers. 



Nephtcea SAV. (according to EHRENB. to be written Nephthya). 

 Polypary ramulose or shrubby, with Polyps retractile within warts 

 armed with spicula. 



Sp. Nephtcea innominata BLAINV., Nephthya Savignyii EHRENB., Ammothea 

 Chabrolii AUDOUIN, Descr. de VEgypte, Polypes, PL n. iig. 5. To the same 

 genus belongs Sphongodes celosia LESSON, Illustrations de Zoologie, PL xxi. 

 which seems scarcely different from Alcyonium floridum ESPER, Alcyon. 

 Tab. xvi. 



