370 Prof. Hiclcson, On Alcyonaria in the Cambridge Museum 



graph that gives a critical examination of the most unsatisfactory 

 and confusing Hterature of the family, comes to hand, the attempt 

 to identify the species is little better than a waste of time. 



Virgularia mirabilis sp.? 0. F. Miiller. 

 In 1889 I recorded the occurrence of specimens of the o-enus 

 Virgularia from the coast of Victoria under the name Virgularia 

 lowenn, but as recent researches on the stages of growth of the 

 northern species of the genus have shown that the type of this 

 species IS but a growth form of F. mirabilis, it is clear that the 

 name I gave to the Austrahan specimen must be changed. 



The question is whether these specimens, however, are correctlv 

 identified with a species that has hitherto been recorded only from 

 the N. Atlantic and Mediterranean waters, and I have therefore 

 re-examined the specimens in order to compare them with examples 

 of 7. mirabilis from our own coast. The result of this examination 

 has been the failure to discover any satisfactory characters to 

 distmgmsh them. In the number of the autozooids in the leaves 

 (about 30), m the characters of the cahces, and in the number 

 and position of the single row of siphonozooids the Austrahan 

 specimens resemble F. mirabilis and correspond with the descrip- 

 tion and figures of F. lowenii as given by Kolhker. 



But before assuming that this identification is sound and that 

 we have m this case an example of a species with bipolar distri- 

 bution, it IS really necessary to examine a large series of growth 

 forms of the Austrahan Virgularias. 



Many years ago specimens of Virgularia from Austraha were 

 recorded by Gray and named F. elegans, and A. Thomson has 

 recently recorded a Virgularia under the same specific name from 

 the Ceylon seas*. It is difiicult to determine from the pubhshed 

 descriptions of these specimens what are the specific differences 

 between F. elegans and F. mirabilis, as no account is given of the 

 position and number of the siphonozooids. It seems possible how- 

 ever, that they are all representatives of a species that has a very 

 - wide distribution where a suitable habitat occurs. For the present 

 therefore, I am content to leave the name F. mirabilis for the 

 Victoria specimens. 



Cavernularia cJiuni Kiikenthal and Brochf. ' 



Seven specimens of a species of Cavernularia were found by 

 Ur C. Hose washed ashore after a storm on the beach at Miri 

 Sarawak, Borneo. As this is, I beheve, only the second record 

 of a pennatuhd being "washed ashore"— the other being Cavernu- 



* Beport Pearl Fish., Suppl. xxvm, 1905. - ' 



t "Valdivia," Pennatulacea, xui, p. 190. 



