240 PROFESSOR P. M. DUNCAN ON THE 
ing to their order. The pali are single, tall, sharply granular, not incised ; and those 
of the tertiary septa are short and most distinct 
Height 3% inch ; breadth of calice 35 inch. 
Locality, No. 19 dredging, in the 2nd expedition of the ‘ Porcupine,’ 248 fathoms. 
The small columella, septal number, large pali, the approach of the higher order of 
septa towards the next, and the costal structures separate this Paracyathus very readily. 
It belongs to the group with unlobed pali, and is easily distinguished from Paracyathus 
pulchellus, Ed. & H., and Paracyathus strictus, Philippi. 
It differs from Paracyathus agassizi in the smallness of the calice, that of the last- 
named coral being large and the pali bilobed. 
PARACYATHUS STRIATUS, Phil. (Plate XLIV. figs. 4-10.) 
In the memoir on the deep-sea corals (No. iv. Ilustr, Cat. Harvard Coll. 1871), 
Count Pourtales describes, with some hesitation, Paracyathus confertus, with coste 
distinct to the base, not prominent and granular, calice oblong, concave; septa 
crowded, thin, entire, slightly exsert, in 5 cycles, but with considerable irregularity 
in some of the systems. Pali numerous, and difficult to distinguish from the papille 
of the columella; and he notices that specimens from the Azores do not differ from 
this form. In the description of the corals collected in the Hassler expedition, 
1874, he notices (p. 38) that he has seen small specimens associated with his type 
which resemble Paracyathus de filippi, Duch. et Mich., of the West Indies; and he 
suspects them all to be of one species. With regard to the variation of the Paracyathi, 
he observes:—“The characters are. very variable—the type figured in my Deep-sea 
Corals, pl. vi. figs. 11-13, passing into another with deeply sunk columella, the papille 
of which are partly twisted like those of a Caryophyllia or Trochocyathus, well-defined 
pali rising much higher, more exsert septa, and a more regular shape. ‘This latter 
type is the most common at Barbadoes, the other in Florida. The great variability of 
these forms inclines me to believe that Paracyathus agassizi, Dunc., can scarcely be 
separated, especially from the West-Indian form.” ‘There is no doubt that the dif- 
ficulty of discriminating the species of Paracyathus is very great; but, as a rule, the 
septal number, the size of the columella, the lobed or not lobed character of the pali, and 
perhaps the costal development are visible early in the coral-growth. I would rather 
therefore at present continue to maintain Paracyathus agassizi. The figure given by 
Count Pourtales of Paracyathus confertus shows distinctly the crowded septa with hardly 
any interseptal loculi, a large columella, and perfectly well-formed bilobed pali. But in 
the specimen which I received from him this character of the pali is not present, and 
the columella is deeply seated, the septa being crowded. Probably, then, there is more 
than one species of American Paracyathus with close septa. On comparing this last 
specimen with those obtained in the expedition of H.M.S. ‘ Porcupine,’ some of which 
were figured in the former Memoir on Deep-sea Corals (Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. viii. pt. v.), 
