274 CEYLON PEARL OYSTER REPORT. 



ORDER II. : ALCYONAOEA.* 



FAMILY: ALCYONIID^. 



The genera Sarcophytum, Sclerophytum, Lobophytum, and Alcyonium are discussed 

 in Miss PRATT'S Report, this volume, p. 247. There has been left to us to describe 

 what seems to be a new species of the little-known genus Bellonella. 



Bellonella indica, n. sp. Plate VI., fig. 5. 



A small cylindrical specimen of a crimson-vermilion colour with yellow calyces and 

 white polyps. It is attached to a fragment of rock and stands 24 millims. in height, 

 with a basal diameter of 10 millims. and an apical diameter of 6 millims. The lower 

 half is a sterile trunk, the upper half bears crowded polyps, whose white colour 

 contrasts well with the red of the general coenenchyma and the rich yellow of the 

 calyces. Many of the calyces measure 1 millim. in diameter, and the interval between 

 them is often the same. Smaller forms occur among the larger, but there is no 

 evidence of dimorphism of zooids. The margin of the calyx is neatly 8-lobed, and 

 here and there the white polyps are expanded. The tentacles, which seem to run 

 somewhat markedly to a triangular point, bear on each side about 18 finger-like 

 pinnules. A longitudinal cut shows the large longitudinal canals traversing the 

 bright red coenenchyma, and the eight longitudinal strands in each canal stand out 

 sharply as bright white lines. 



The spicules of the coenenchyma are of an orange-red to yellowish colour, mostly 

 like knobbed capstans, or double clubs with large warty heads, or double wheels with 

 a very slight constriction between them. They form a granular pavement over the 

 surface and densely fill the coenenchyma. In the sterile trunk there seem to be no 

 double clubs in the strict sense ; the form is more like a knobbed dumb-bell with an 

 exceedingly slight and short constriction in the middle. In all cases the warts are 

 few, large, and blunt. The spicules are thus unlike the fusiform echinate forms 

 reported as characteristic of Bellonella, but the genus has not been well defined, and 

 it may be noted that two isolated polyps showed a few colourless or faintly yellowish 

 fusiform spicules with a few thorns. It is not certain, however, that these belonged 

 to the polyp ; they may have been artificial inclusions. 



The following measurements of the typical spicules were taken, length and breadth, 

 in millimetres : 



0-08 X 0-06 (0-04 at middle) ; 0'06 X 0'06 (0"04 at middle) ; 0'06 X 0'045 ; 

 0-06 X 0-04; 0'05 X 0'04 (0'03 at the middle); 0'045 X 0'0375 (0'025 at the 

 middle). 



The specimen is very different from Bellonella (Cereopsis) bocagei, SAV. KENT, and 

 B. variabilis, STUDER, but neither of these agrees conspicuously well with GRAY'S 



* Exclusive of the Alcyoniidse described by Miss PRATT (this vol., p. 247). 



