Prof. Hickson, On Alcyonaria in the Cambridge Museum 369 



obviously it would be absurd to suggest a specific difference on 

 this single very variable character. 



In conclusion it may be said that the comments of Versluys 

 on the relation of this interesting genus to the family Telestidae 

 appear to be sound as also is his conclusion that there is no 

 evidence at present as to any direct relationship with the fossil 

 genus Cladochonus and the Auloporidae. 



Telesfo frichostemma Dana. 



A few branches of a Telesto that must be attributed to the 

 widely distributed species T. trichostemma were found in the Uraga 

 Channel off Tokyo, Japan, in 40-200 fathoms. The walls of the 

 main and lateral zooids are so densely crowded with large spindle- 

 shaped and profusely tuberculated spicules that they are quite 

 rigid and they show eight shallow longitudinal ridges as in other 

 specimens of the species. These walls, however, become soft and 

 flexible on prolonged boiUng in potash and then the outhne of the 

 individual spicules can be clearly distinguished. In this respect 

 the species differs from T. rubra in which the walls are also rigid, 

 but do not soften or show the outhnes of spicules clearly after 

 prolonged boihng in potash. The colour is pale red. An interesting 

 feature of these specimens is that they support a number of 

 specimens of the rare entoproctous polyzoon Barentsia discreta. 



Leptogorgia sp. ? 



The specimen was obtained by Charles Darwin in the Galapagos 

 Islands during the voyage of the "Beagle" in 1835. It is evidently 

 only a small fragment of a much larger specimen. 



The branches freely anastomose in one plane forming meshes 

 of 6 sq. mm. or less but of very variable size. The branches are 

 about 2 mm. in diameter and almost cyhndrical in shape. They 

 are of a dark red brown colour spotted on both sides with flat 

 yellow calices. 



The spicules are spindle-shaped with five or six encirchng rows 

 of prominent compound tubercles and have a length of about 

 0-1 mm. and a breadth, including the tubercles, of 0-04 mm. 



The axis is composed of a horny substance without any deposit 

 of calcium carbonate and is perforated longitudinally by a series 

 of chambers filled with a hght transparent spongy substance. In 

 a branch of the axis 0-4 mm. in diameter 20 of these chambers 

 can be counted in a millimeter of length. 



No attempt has been made to identify the species of this 

 gorgonid because the specimen is only a fragment and because I 

 have not had the opportunity of studying the systematic part of 

 Kiikenthal's monograph on "the Gorgonaria in the "Valdivia" 

 series of pubhcations. Until this monograph or some other mono- 



