37. MOPSEA. 15 



very short, broader than long, and shorter than the horny internodes ; 

 internodes cylindrical, contracted in the middle, rose-red. 



Isis coralloides, Lamk. Mem. Mm. i. p. 416, Hist. A. s. V. ed. 2. ii. 



p. 476 ; Milne-Edw. Corall. i. p. 195. 

 Mopsea P, Dana, Exp. p. 680. 

 IsideUa? coralloides, Gray, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 284. 



Hob. South Sea. 



94. Isidella eburnea. 



Arborescent, slender, dichotomous. Calcareous joints long, cylin- 

 drical, faintly striated, seldom quite straight, not swollen at the 

 ends. Corneous joints very short. (In one case a long straggling 

 branch, entirely corneous, has grown from a calcareous joint, and 

 bears four polypes.) Polypes scattered, bright orange, generally 

 arising from the calcareous joints, but also occasionally from the 

 corneous ones, surrounded by a spirally twisted bundle of long spi- 

 cules, of which eight longer ones project around the tentacles. The 

 latter are pinnate, and strengthened in their whole length by a chain 

 of blunt cylindrical spicules. * The colour of the whole corallum, 

 with the exception of the corneous joints and the polypes, is pure 

 white. 



Mopsea eburnea, Pourtales, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 1868, p. 133. 



Hob. A fine specimen, 4 inches high, was obtained, in 517 fathoms, 

 off Sombrero Light, Florida. The diameter of the thickest part is 

 y 1 ^ of an inch. The root was not brought up. 



** Coral pinnate ; cells whorled. 



37. MOPSEA. 



Coral branched, fan-shaped ; branches pinnate. Axis jointed ; 

 stony joint short; branches from the short horny articulation. Bark 

 hard, with imbedded spicula. Polypiferous cells produced, wart-like, 

 subverticillate, Ascending, rather incurved. 



Mopsea, Lamx. Polyp. Flex. 1816, p. 466, Corallina, p. 233. 



Isis, sp., Lamk. Hist. A. s. V. ed. 2. ii. p. 474. 



Mopsea, B B, Milne-Ediv. fy Haime, Corall. i. p. 197 : Dana. Exp. 



p. 678 ; Gray, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 284. 

 Isis, **Mopsea, Schweigger, Beob. 1819, 1. 10. 



The bark is much thinner than that of Isis hippuris. The cells 

 are very like those of Gorgonia verticillaris ; but they are more scat- 

 tered on the stem. 



95. Mopsea encrinnla. B.M. 



Coral branched; branches pinnate or subbipinnate ; branchlets 

 filiform, papilliferous ; papilla spread, ascending. 



Isis encrinula, Lamk. Hist. ii. p. 302, and, ed. 2, ii. p. 476. 

 Mopsea verticillata, Lamx. Polyp. Flex. p. 467, t. 18. f. 2. 

 Isis (Mopsea) verticillata, 8chweigger, Beob. Syn. 1819, f. 10. 

 Isis dichotoma, Schweigger, Handb. p. 434. 



