HICKSON AND ENGLAND—STYLASTERINA. 349 
The distinctive Characters of Distichopora profunda. 
It is probable that there are many intermediate varieties to be found between our new 
species and D. violacea, but, notwithstanding that there is only a small fragment to work 
upon, the characters it presents are so definite and remarkable that we feel we are 
justified in giving it a new name. 
Distichopora violacea is essentially a shallow-water species, and of the other species 
of the genus that have been described only D. foliacea, Florida, 100-262 fms. (8), 
D. sulcata, off Havana, 270 fms. (8), and D. contorta, off Havana, 175 fms. (7)—all three 
of them described by Pourtalés (7 and 8),—have been found in deep water; but these are 
quite distinct from D. profunda. D. profunda is the only species of the genus 
that has been found in deep water (120-150 fms.) in the Indian and Pacific waters. 
The branches are much bigger than in D. violacea and the surface of the ccenosteum 
is much rougher and coarser. The gastropores are decidedly larger. The gastropores 
are in many places arranged in two alternating rows on the edges of the branches, a 
condition which is very rare indeed in D. violacea. The lips of the dactylopores project 
in the form of horseshoe-shaped collars from the surface of the ecenosteum, much more 
definitely than in D. violacea. The tabul in the gastropores are more frequent and 
definite than they are in D. violacea. 
Genus SPORADOPORA. 
7. Sporadopora providentia, sp.n. (Plate 44, figs. 1, 2, & 3.) 
Providence I., D 8,125 fms. Two colonies. 
The habit of growth of this new species is flabelliform and dichotomous; the branches 
do not coalesce. It is much more delicate in build than S. dichotoma; the shape of the 
branches is, however, similar. The height of the larger of the two colonies is 85 mm., 
the base of the main stem is 5 X 4 mm. in diameter; near the apex of a branch the 
diameter is often as much as 4 X 13 mm. The colour is yellowish white; the surface is 
slightly granular in appearance, but smoother than in S. dichotoma, in which Moseley 
likens the texture to that of loaf-sugar. The zooid-pores are very numerous round the 
edges of the branches, but a few may be scattered on either surface. There is a nearer 
approach to arrangement in cyclosystems than in Moseley’s species (fig. 2). Yet the 
system of pores recalls still more strongly the condition common in Diéstichopora, most 
of the gastropores lying in an irregular double or single row at the edge of the branches 
and the dactylopores arranged either in irregular lateral rows or more irregularly 
scattered (fig. 1). The lip of the gastropore projects slightly above the surface of the 
ccenosteum and the aperture is about 2°75 mm. in diameter. The gastropore is deep 
and curved down the branch ; it bears a long gastrostyle, similar to that of Distichopora 
but not quite so slender, tapering toa point near the gastropore. As in Sporadopora 
dichotoma, tabule occur in the gastropores, but in the small fragments we have examined 
they are not nearly so common as they are in Distichopora profunda or in Sporadopora 
dichotoma, according to the description originally given of them by Moseley. 
