Knoioledge of the Alcyonaria. 187 



PrimiioacesB. 



ViLLOGORGiA, Duchassaing de Fonbressin & Michelotti. 



Villoqorqia, Ducli. de Fonbressin & Michelotti, Mem. Cor. Antilles, 



p.32.' 

 Faramuricea, Kolliker (pars), Icoues Histiol. p. 136 ; Studer, MB. Ak. 



Berlin, 1878, p. 653. 

 Lissogoivjia, Verrill, Proc. Bost. Soc. 1804, p. 213. 

 ?Blepharo(ior(/iaj Duch. & Mich. Rev. Spong. Zooph. Antilles, p. lo. 

 BoarelJa, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist, (-l) v. p. 406. 

 Brandella, Gray, Cat. Lithophvtes Brit. Mas. p. 30. 

 Plexawa, pars, Klunzinger, Kor. Both. Meer. p. 52. 



Type Villogorgia nigrescens^ Duch. & Mich. I. c. 



No good reason seems to exist why Kolliker, writing in 

 1864, should have replaced the name given in 1860 to this 

 genus by the authors of the ' M(5moire sur les Coralliaires 

 des Antilles ' by a fresh appellation, still less for Dr. G ray's 

 action in 1870 in ignoring the work of all three writers. But 

 Kolliker's name may be with advantage retained for a part 

 of his genus. 



It may be defined as consisting of Gorgoniidte with well- 

 branched corallum, with entirely horny axis, scarcely or not 

 at all concealed, except on ultimate branches, by ? thin 

 coenenchyma ; covered on all sides by scattered verrucse ; 

 more or less anastomosis of the branches occurs. Verrucse 

 prominent, cylindrical, surrounded or not by a crown of 

 projecting linear spicules. Spicules of coenenchyma large, 

 tuberculate, 4-8-stellate, and fusiform ; those of verrucse 

 large, tuberculate, fusiform, accompanied by flattened, 

 superficially tuberculate, and laterally scalloped forms 

 (" Stachelplatten," Kolliker, Icon. Histiol. pi. xvii. fig. 19 a 

 &c.). The genus thus limited would probably include Para- 

 muricea 'placomus ^ Esper (Koll.), P. sjnnosa, Kolliker {I.e.) 

 P. [VUlogorgia) nigrescens^ Duch. & Mich. {I.e.), P. gracilis 

 Studer (/. c), P. horealis, Verrill (Am. J. Sci. [3] xvi.'p. 213)' 

 Gorgonia cancellata, Dana, = Antij)at/ies Jiahellum, Pallas 

 Brandella intricata, Gray {I.e.), Lissogorgia Jlexuosa, Verrill 

 (Proc. Essex Inst. iv. pp. 43, 187), and perhaps Anti/pathes 

 clathrata and A. fceniculata, Esper. 



For species without the Stachelplatten of the cortex Para- 

 muricea might be retained as a subgenus, although in external 

 characters it cannot be distinguished from typical forms of 

 VUlogorgia ; and the peculiar spicule of that genus is, as Kol- 

 liker believes, probably represented by the quadri- and octo- 

 radiates of this group. Into this division would fal 1 Paramnricea 

 intermedia, Kolliker {I. c.) , Boarella flahellata, Gray (Ann. & 



