Dr. J. E. Gray on new Alcyonoid Corals. 441 



at the terminus on the Boulevard Mazas, the HaplochiU had 

 gasped their last, and could only be said to have just reached 

 Paris to die. I have wondered several times since, what be- 

 came of these two. They were good specimens ; their colours 

 were not as bright as if, instead of being choked or drowned 

 in water, they had been drowned or choked in spirits ; but the 

 bottle had on it a label with their name and country, and I 

 left it behind me in the railway carriage." 



Thus my experiment failed ; but I doubt not that, with a 

 little more care, it would have succeeded ; and I feel sure that 

 ere long this pretty freshwater iish will be brought into France, 

 and so make its way into England. The intelligent and ener- 

 getic officers in charge of the mails between Reunion and Paris 

 have many facilities for carrying this project into effect ; and as 

 there is only three days of the three weeks' journey to be 

 accomplished by rail, the difficulties of railway transit are not 

 insurmountable. My belief is that this little fish would be- 

 come a great favourite in this country. I would commend the 

 subject to the consideration of M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, the 

 able Secretary of the Jardin d'Acclimatation of Paris. With 

 such zealous assistants as he has in my friends Capt.. Rappatel 

 of the ^ Erymanthe,' and M. Richard, Agent de F Administra- 

 tion des Postes, he need experience no difficulty in having 

 brought to Paris any of the land or freshwater vertebrates to 

 be met with in the islands off the east coast of Africa. 



LVIII. — Descriptions of some new Genera and Species of Al- 

 cyo7ioid Corals in the British Museum. By Dr. J. E. Gray, 

 F.R.S.,V.P.Z.S.,&c. 



Some years ago we received from Mr. Jukes some animals in 

 spirits. Amongst these is a fleshy Alcyonoid, which lives on 

 the naked axis of a Gorgonia apparently belonging to a 

 genus and species that I have not before seen described. Un- 

 fortunately the specimen has no habitat attached to it, and it 

 is not in a very good state ; so I have been waiting in hope of 

 another specimen arriving in a better condition and with its 

 locality stated ; but being now engaged in naming the unde- 

 termined species of this group, I shall proceed to describe 

 it. 



This Alcyonoid has much resemblance to the genus Neph- 

 thy a] but it differs in the slenderness of the branches and 

 branchlets, the distance between the polypes, and the outer 

 surface of the polypes being entirely destitute of fusiform and 

 other spicules. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. TW. iL 31 



