78 Dr. C. Liitken on a new Species of Black Coral 



and South Carolina no Antipathic! has hitherto been known ; 

 and that a representative of this group is now suddenly dis- 

 covered in the extreme north certainly makes a very consider- 

 able alteration in the notions which we have hitherto enter- 

 tained as to its geographical distribution, and leads us to con- 

 jecture that it may extend to all the deeper valleys of the 

 ocean*. That the Greenland species belongs to deep water is 

 warranted by the sea-hound's well-known habit of seeking its 

 food at great depths (200-250 fathoms) ; that it should have 

 gone to fetch this little " sea-shrub " very far from the place 

 where it was itself caught we may regard as not very probable. 

 It is true that the sea-hound, like the sharks in general, is a 

 fish which wanders pretty widely ; and we have instances of 

 its straying far beyond its proper range — to Scotland and the 

 north of France, for example. But, nevertheless, in the pre- 

 sent case it would be improbable that it should have sought 



stated by Milne-Edwards (Hist. Nat. des Corall. tome i. pp. 314-319). 

 The last mentioned is a native of the East Indies ; and other species of its 

 genus are known from the West Indies, Madeira, and Australia. Anti- 

 pathes scoparia I believe I have recognized with certainty in a form from 

 the Red Sea represented in our museum. Of the species which are stated 

 only by older writers (e. c/, Lamouroux) to be from the Mediterranean 

 we may probably take no notice. From Madeira also various species are 

 known (Cirrijmthes setacea and gracilis, Gray, Antipathes furcata, Gray, 

 and snbpinnata, Ellis ?) — and from South Carolina Antipathes Boscii, 

 Lamk., and A. alopecu7-oides, Ellis. In the tract between Florida and 

 Cuba Pourtales found five species (A.Jilix, humilis, tetrasticha, and two 

 undescribed species). Besides these we know a whole series of species 

 from the West Indies: — Cj'rnj'ja^Aes Des6o«m', Duch. & Mich. ; Antipa- 

 thes peclata and atlantica, Gray ; A. americana and clissecta, Duch. & 

 Mich, (both from St. Thomas); A. eupteridea, Lamk. (Martinique); 

 Arachnopathes panicidata, Duch. & Mich. (Guadeloupe) ; and Leiopathes 

 compressa, Esp. (Jamaica). Many of these, however, are but imperfectly 

 knovsTi. A. reticidata, Esp., and A. larix, Esp., are also represented as 

 West-Indian ; but this can hardly be correct, but due to mistakes either 

 in the determination or in the statement of localities. A. retimdata is an 

 East-Indian species (Manilla), and A. larix is a native of the Mediterra- 

 nean. From Cape Palinas we have A. spiftescens, Gray. From the 

 southern part of the Atlantic we know no Antipatharia. 



* INiarsigli took A. dichotoma at a depth of 140 fathoms. Pourtales 

 captured his species at 116-120, 270, and 195-324 fathoms. Heller took 

 Gerardia Lamarckii at 50-60 fathoms, in company with red corals. That 

 the Mediterranean black corals (palmas veras) usually occur in this asso- 

 ciation, and at considerable depths, is known from Lacaze-Duthiers's ad- 

 mirable investigations upon the Antipatharia. That those in warmer 

 seas also occur at much smaller depths, however, appears from the fact 

 that Dana obtained A. arborea in 10 fathoms and A. anffuitiea in 10 feet 

 of water at the Fiji Islands (Explor. Exped. Zoophytes, pp. 577 & 585). 

 At the Pearl Islands, in the Gulf of Panama, Bradley obtained A. pana- 

 mensis, by means of pearl-divers, from 6-8 fathoms (Verrill, " Notes on 

 Radiata, No. 6," p. 500, Transact. Conn. Acad. i.). 



