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gitta marina nigra — was named by Pallas Pennatula grandis and 
subsequently referred to the genus Pferoeides by Herklots under the 
name Pteroeides grande. 
Kölliker however in his classical work “Anatomisch-systematische 
Beschreibung der Alcyonarien”, published in 1872, described a new 
species of Virgularia (V. rumphi), which he declared to be synonymous 
with the Sagitia marina (2° soorte) of Rumphius. 
Having had the opportunity of studying a very large collection of 
Pennatulacea from the Malay Archipelago collected by the dutch 
exploring expedition “Siboga”, my attention has been called to this 
point and I have come to the conclusion that Kölliker’s reference of 
the Sagitta marina nigra to the genus Virgularia was an error. It was 
a Pteroeides. 
In the first place Imay call attention to two mistakes in Kölliker’s 
monograph (p. 202). 
The form referred to by Rumphius as the “tweede soorte” was his 
Sagitta marina nigra, not alba, and the date of publication of the 
Rariteitkamer was 1705 not 1740. 
The only reason, so far as I can discover, for his identification of 
the “nigra” form as a Virgularia was that the specimen he examined 
and named Virgularia rumphii was obtained by E. v. Martens on the 
exact spot, namely off the Castell Victoria at Amboyna, on which Rum- 
phius observed his Sagitta marina nigra. 
The description givenby Rumphius of this species is so remarkably 
detailed — for the period in which he wrote — that it may be fairly 
regarded as one of the most important and interesting pages in the 
literature of the group. 
In the account he gives of the “tweede soorte”, the one with which 
we are more particularly concerned, he states that the “Zeespatten” or 
axes, as we now call them are black, in contrast to those of the other 
kind, which are white. 
I have examined a very large number of specimens of Virgularia 
from the Malay Archipelago and elsewhere and in all cases the axes 
are white or very pale yellow, and among all the Pennatulids it is only 
in certain specimens belonging to the genus Pferoeides which are gray 
in colour that the axis could by any stretch of the imagination be cal- 
led black. 
It was this character which first caused me to doubt the correctness 
of Kölliker’s identification but on reading carefully the following 
account of the leaves my doubt was strongly confirmed. 
Rumphius describes the leaves as like “cocks combs, doch veel 
dunder en uitgebreidt door fyne straalen, in’t rond staande, als vischoo- 
