Dr. J. E. Gray on some Claviform Pennatulidse. 75 



where, I am told, they are collected for food. They differ exceed" 

 ingly from each other ; and if they are all of the same species, as I 

 suspect is the case, it shows how difficult it is to give a character 

 that shall define the species of the genus. Some are short, thick, 

 oblong, rounded at each end, varying from 2\ to 3 inches long, with 

 a short thick base to the club of about half an inch long. In most 

 of the specimens of this form, the polypes are retracted ; but in one, 

 some of them are expanded. 



In the second group the club is much larger, varying from 3 to 

 7 or 8 inches long, and is attenuated upwards. The base of the 

 club is short and thick, as in the former group of specimens. The 

 polypes are generally expanded ; they are much more slender and 

 more elongate than the polypes of Lituaria australis. 



Probably the length and tapering form of these specimens may be 

 dependent on their having been placed originally in weaker spirits. 

 The size of the cavities or tubes in the specimens also differ ; they 

 are largest in the short broad specimens, but very distinct in all. 

 I am therefore inclined to believe that there are only two distinct 

 genera of the Claviform Sea- Pens. 



Lituaria. 



The pen elongate, the upper part slender, tapering, with close 

 longitudinal rows of polypes ; the interspace between the polypes 

 covered with close longitudinal rows of distinct circular pores ; the 

 opening of the polype-cells, when contracted, longitudinal ; the lower 

 part elongate, subcylindrical, smooth ; the axis hard, stony, distinct, 

 well developed, quadrangular. 



The lower part of the coral, which is destitute of polypes, is elon- 

 gate, often one-third and rarely nearly half as long as the upper 

 polype-bearing portion of the club ; the length of the stem, as 

 compared with the club, appears to differ, within certain limits, in 

 different specimens of the same species from the same locality, but 

 it is always larger and more slender than the same part in the genus 

 Veretillum. 



The specimens of this genus in the British Museum appear to 

 separate themselves into two very distinct groups, which may repre- 

 sent so many species, or may only depend on the manner in which 

 the specimens have been preserved, or even on the strength of the 

 spirit in which they were at first immersed. 



In four specimens from Penang, collected by Dr. Cantor, which 

 are slender and white, all the polypes are entirely contracted, leaving 

 a compressed slit over the cell, except in one of the small specimens, in 

 which a few of the polypes are partly exserted ; they are pale brown. 

 In one of the specimens the fleshy part of the base is thickened, and 

 has contracted so much that the hard axis is exserted nearly an 

 inch beyond the base. In this specimen the base of the club is much 

 shorter and thicker than in the others. From this specimen I am 

 led to believe that the length and slenderness of the club in the 

 genus, when in spirit, is preserved by the rigidity of the internal axis. 

 These specimens are probably the Lituaria phalldides of Milne- 



6* 



