116 Mr. J. J. Quelch on new Stylasteride. 
of the Stylasteride, yet the main characters as given in the 
old description are sufficiently striking. 
The following are selected from it:—“Corallum flabelli- 
form, branching dichotomously in a plane; branches round 
or flattened transversely ; branchlets obtuse, often compressed 
at the tips; surface very minutely granular, appearing almost 
smooth, with scattered patches of rounded verruce; three 
rows of minute pits arranged closely in regular series along 
the edges of the branches, those of the central larger row cir- 
cular, often having a slender columella in the centre; lateral 
ones much smaller, generally irregular in form ; colour bright 
red, tips of the branches yellowish white ; other specimens are 
light orange.” 
From this it will be seen that even in the specimens de- 
scribed by Verrill the variations of colour were remarkable, 
ranging from bright red to light orange. 
In the Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 5th ser. vol. ix. (1882), 
p- 74, in a paper “On some new Species of Corals,” in 
which this species was redescribed as D. Brasseyt and D. 
Allnutti, it is stated that the habitat of D. nitida, with the 
many species described by Pourtalés, is the Gulfstream and 
in and about the West-India Islands and Florida; while its 
colour is indicated as being of a whitish tint, and is contrasted 
with the vivid colours of the Pacific species, from the list of 
which D. fragilis, D., and D. livida, Tenison-Woods, are 
omitted ! 
It is scarcely to be wondered at that, having so little 
knowledge of the characters and distribution of the species, 
the author of this paper should have redescribed it under two 
new specific terms. 
Where the colour in the same species, and more especially 
in the same specimen, varies so extremely, it is confessedly a 
difficult matter to name the combination in such a way as to 
convey exactly to another what is intended; but the speci- 
mens of D. ntida which have so lately been described as D. 
Brasseyt and D. Allnutti seem to present unusual difficulty ; 
for in one place they are given as being “ of a fuscous or 
deep foxy-red orange and of a pinkish orange respectively,” 
while in another they are ‘ fuscous orange-red in colour, 
paling towards the extremities,” and “deep red, tinted or 
slightly mottled with orange at the extremities of the stems 
and adult branches, paling off into white and pale orange- 
yellow.” 
The specimens collected by Lady Brassey were from the 
Gilbert Islands, a group in the immediate vicinity, and south 
ot Ebon Island; and though they certainly are unique and 
