MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 39 
mit conical in contraction, consisting of eight clusters of acute, convergent 
spicula, corresponding to the bases of the tentacles and surrounded by a circle 
of slender curved spicula, just within the margin. The spicula forming the 
sides of the calicles are mostly fusiform and very roughly warted; those at the 
margin project but little. 
Height of a moderate-sized specimen, 160 mm.; breadth, 150 mm.; diam- 
eter of the stem near the base, 3 mm.; of the branchlets, without the calicles, 
.75 mm.; diameter of the calicles, .6 mm.; height, about .6 mm. 
Taken at Station 272, in 76 fathoms, off Barbados, by the Blake, in 
1878-79, and at several other localities in the same region. 
This species is allied to P. borealis, but is more slender, and has smaller 
spicula, which are different in form, and the surface of the coenenchyma is 
spinulose. 
Family PLEXAURID&. 
Eunicella modesta VeERRILL, sp. nov. 
Plate Il. Fig. 3. 
Coral small, sparingly branched, nearly in a single plane, with large, low, 
round-topped, verruciform calicles. Base expanded, adhering to shells, ete. 
The main stem sends off a few branches, of about its own size; these spread 
abruptly at base, and then bend upward in a broad curve; they give off a few 
rather long, ascending branchlets, mostly from the outer curvature (in larger 
specimens these would probably divide farther in a similar way). The axis is 
round, horny, dark chestnut-brown in the larger branches, soft and yellow in 
the smaller ones. The calicles are rather large, low, rounded verruce, form- 
ing a close double row along each margin of the branches; they are mostly in 
contact, or nearly so, at their bases, in the rows, but leave a narrow, irregular, 
barren zone along the middle of the sides ; the tentacles are entirely retracted 
and the aperture is usually completely closed up, so that the summit of the 
calicle is evenly rounded, or shows only a slight pit in the centre ; sometimes 
it shows gight faint grooves and ridges. The entire surface is covered with 
the exposed, smooth, rounded, outer ends of the club-shaped spicula, forming 
the outer layer; these give the surface an evenly, regularly, and finely granu- 
lated appearance, under a lens. The color is white in alcohol. 
The largest specimen is 120 mm. high and 65 mm. broad; diameter of the 
branches, 2.5 to 3 mm. 
The club-shaped spicula (Fig. 3, a) of the cenenchyma are remarkable for the 
smoothness and evenly rounded form of the larger end ; at the smaller end 
there is usually a single group of small warts; sometimes there is another 
whorl a little higher up. These clubs mostly measure from .13 to .16 mm. in 
length, and .03 to .05 mm. in greatest breadth. There are also some double- 
headed warty spicules (Fig. 3, c), about .15 by .07 mm.; a few compound 
double-spindles, about .25 by .03 mm.; and some simple, warty, fusiform 
