192 VERRILL, SYNOPSIS OF 



NEPHTHYA THYRSOIDEA Verrili, 1. c. p. 151. 

 Plate 6, figures 8, 8a, Sb. 



Corallum thyrsoid, consisting of a pyramidal head of 

 compound; glomerate clusters of polyp cells, supported by 

 a short, thick pedicel. The short branches arise from all 

 sides of the main trunk and spread abruptly, dividing at 

 once into numerous small rounded lobes, which are dense- 

 ly covered by the crowded polyps ; cells larger than in the 

 preceding, less thickly covered by the spicula, which are 

 yellowish gray and quite small. Height of the largest 

 specimen, 3 inches, diameter 2, diameter of pedicel .5, 

 length of naked part .75. 



False Bay, Cape of Good Hope. "Taken commonly 

 in small clusters, rarely in large ones, in 20 fathoms, rocks, 

 Oct. 1853. Color wine-yellow or light brown ; polyps dark 

 purplish just under the tentacles; the latter palish, nearly 

 white ; stalks with irregular, transverse, elevated, silvery 

 lines of spicula." Dr. Wm. Stimpson. 



SPONGODES GIGANTEA Verrili, Bulletin of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, p. 40. Jan., 1864. 



Large, paniculately branched; principal branches few 

 and large, covered on all parts by short, thick, glomerate 

 branchlets, which are themselves divided into numerous 

 clusters or small heads of polyps; the polyps are small, not 

 crowded, most of them armed with a bundle of long, white, 

 prominent spines, some with smaller single ones; bases of 

 the tentacles filled with numerous, red spicula; the trunk 

 is very open, cavernous, the walls membranous, filled with 

 slender, white spicula ; the base divided into root-like ex- 

 pansions. Height 12 inches or more ; diameter of trunk, 

 near the base 3 ; of principal branches 2. Color of trunk, 

 in alcohol, brownish gray ; polyps dark red, with conspic- 

 uous white spines. 



Hong Kong, China, on rocks in 1 fathom, April, 1854. 

 Dr. Wm. Stimpson. 



