Prof. HicTcson, On Alcyonaria in the Cambridge Museum 371 



Uria malabarica recorded by Fowler*— the fact is of some interest 

 in the natural history of the sea-pens, and I was surprised to 

 find that the species of the Bornean Cavernularia is not the same 

 as that which is washed ashore in the Bay of Bengal. 



The principal measurements of the five perfect specimens were 

 as follows: 



12 3 4 5 

 Length of rachis 25 35 40 48 50 mm. 

 „ stalk 7 15 8 16 10 mm. 



From these figures it is clear that the stalk is relatively short, the 

 rachis-stalk ratio varying from 2-5 : 1 in specimen 2 to 5 : 1 in 

 specimens 3 and 5. 



As in the type specimen, there is no sharp distinction in dia- 

 meter between the stalk and rachis, the stalk passing abruptly 

 into the rachis by the appearance of the zooids only. This feature 

 is in marked contrast to that of C. malabarica — in which the 

 passage from the stalk to rachis is marked by a great increase in 

 diameter. 



The specimens are so much contracted and distorted that any 

 figures that might be given of the diameter would be untrust- 

 w^orthy. As a guide, however, to the proportions in the species, 

 I may say that I estimated the greatest diameter of the rachis of 

 specimen 5 to be about 15 mm. There is no axis in the two speci- 

 mens that were dissected. 



The spicules of the rachis are needles 0-3-0-5 mm. in length 

 by 0-04 mm. in breadth arranged vertically to the surface and 

 penetrating down almost to the centre of the rachis. There are 

 no spicules that are divided at the extremities. 



In the stalk the spicules at the surface are small rods and oval 

 in shape, -OS-O-l mm. in length, but in the depths there are 

 numerous rod-shaped spicules of the same type as those that occur 

 in the rachis. 



The character and arrangement of the spicules are like those 

 described for Cavernularia cliuni by Kiikenthal and Broch, with 

 which species the Bornean specimens also agree in the total absence 

 of an axis. 



In the type, however, the stalk is relatively much longer, the 

 stalk-rachis ratio being l-l-4r. 



As the species was founded on a single specimen and this stalk- 

 rachis ratio may be variable, it seems probable that the specimens 

 from Borneo should be called Cavernularia chuni. 



The locahty given for the type which is deposited in the Vienna 

 Museum is Coamong (?). (I do not know where Coamong is and 

 cannot find such a place mentioned in Stieler's Atlas.) 



* P.Z.S. 1894. 



