70 Zoological Society : — 



2. Spoggodes spinosa. 



The coral whitish, forming roundish spinose masses ; the stem 

 thick, shghtly branched, with very numerous short branchlets ; the 

 spicules white, very unequal, some large and thick ; the terminal 

 branchlet furnishedf, on the inner upper edge, with curved (in spirits) 

 partly retracted purple polypes, which are surmounted and protected 

 by the large opake- white spicules of the branchlets. 



Hah. New Guinea. 



This species is easily distinguished by the large size and opake- 

 white colour of the spicula and the purple colour of the polypes. 



II. The polypes isolated in the prominent isolated spiculose sub- 

 cylindrical cells, scattered on the sides, or forming tips of the 

 branchlets. Spoggodia. 



3. Spoggodes unicolor. (Woodcut, figs. 1, 2.) 



The coral uniform pale yellowish (in spirits) ; the spicules very 

 slender, whitish yellow ; stem erect ; branches scattered in all di- 

 rections, spreading, tapering, with few short tapering branchlets ; 

 cells distinct, distant, spreading, subcylindrical, sometimes very 

 slightly contracted at the base ; mouth surrounded by five or six 

 unequal prominent spicules, the one on the outer side of the cell 

 being generally the longest ; polypes retractile. 



Hab. Bellona Reefs, in 17 fathoms (Rayner). 



4. Spoggodes divaricata. (Woodcut, figs. 3, 4.) 



Coral pale whitish (in spirits); stem thick, slightly branched, with 

 very numerous crowded ramuli forming roundish lobes ; the ramuli 

 divided at the top into three or five diverging cylindrical cells ; the 

 cells of the several branchlets forming a sort of roundish-topped 

 cyme ; polypes contracted (in spirits), rose-coloured. 



Hab. New Guinea {Capt. Sir Edward Belcher , R.N., C.B.). 



5. Spoggodes ramulosa. (Woodcut, figs. .5, 6.) 



The coral dark brown-red (in spirits) ; stem thick, much branched, 

 strengthened by slender, elongated-fusiform, dark-brown-red spicules ; 

 the branchlets numerous, elongate, slender, much branched. With the 

 cells scattered on their sides ; cells distant, subcylindrical, and 

 fringed on the edge with unequally prominent spicules, the outer 

 spicules being generally the longest and most prominent ; the polypes 

 pale yellowish, being generally nearly contracted into the cells, rarely 

 prominent. 



Hab. Bellona Reefs, at 17 fathoms. 



Some of the polypes on the lower part of the branchlets seem to 

 be somewhat crowded. This species is easily known from S. Jlorida 

 and S. unicolor by the general colour of the coral and by the slender- 

 ness and length of the branchlets. It agrees with the former in the 

 coral and spicules being red, and the polypes being more or less pro- 

 minent and of a different colour from the coral, and with the latter 



