Actinology of the Atlantic Ocean. 103 
name to my specimens, which are in a fine state of preserva- 
tion, on account of the description, and especially the fig. 10, 
pl. xlii., in Prof. Duncan’s first ‘ Porcupine’ memoir. Though 
not quite so clear as might be desirable, this figure is far more 
instructive than those given later; and I may ask any one 
who chooses to compare my figure in ‘ Actinol. Atl. Ocean,’ 
pl. i. fig. 4, with that above mentioned, whether I was not 
justified in referring the North-Atlantic coral to this species. 
As to the pali, Prof. Duncan seems himself to admit their 
partial deficiency. After speaking (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 
Dec. 1883, p. 362) of “the irregular pali,” he says, “ they 
are especially visible when the columella is small.” This 
seems to imply that the columella varies in size, and that 
when the columella is large the pali are not so visible. But 
I cannot make out whether this means that they are deficient 
or that they are hidden from view. ‘The former is probably 
the case, as it is stated in Duncan’s second ‘ Porcupine’ 
memoir, p. 238, that “the pali.... are well developed 
when the columella has only one twist, and are less so when 
this structure is more complicated.” The accompanying 
figures 4 and 7 on pl. xlii. do not show any distinct pall. 
Moreover it may be questioned whether what have been called 
pali in several of the Caryophylliw and others are really 
structures corresponding to the first definition given by Milne- 
Edwards in Ann. d. Sciences Nat. 1848, vol. ix. p. 80. If 
we take for granted that they are to be found “ entre les 
cloisons et la columelle”’ and independent of either, as is 
shown in pl. iv. fig. 1 (Caryophyllia cyathus) of Milne- 
Edwards’s memoir, those occurring in Caryophyllia Smithii 
are not pali, as they are in direct continuation of the septal 
«lamina and formed by a deep vertical incision near the interior 
border of the latter, being in fact nothing but the innermost 
part of the septa*. It may be that such false pali occur 
now and then in specimens of Caryophyllia Pourtalesti; and 
one of my specimens shows an irregular indentation at the 
interior end of only one septum. Now, if Caryophyllia 
cyathus is provided with real pali, and other species, such as 
C. Smithii and C. Pourtalesii, have only false pali, I 
think this is a sufficient reason for separating them into 
different genera. I have never regarded C. Pourtalesii 
as a doubtful species, but I have only questioned the pro- 
* Unfortunately Milne-Edwards, in the continuation of his description, 
also unites with the independent structures, which alone are true pali, 
those lobes or “ dentelures” which so often occur on the axial end of the 
septa and are an integral part of them. But in reality a distinction 
must be made between the two. 
