75 



that genus when it was shown to them, and I have therefore adopted 

 their opinion until more perfect specimens are found to verify or cor- 

 rect our knowledge. It may be described as follows : — 



Flabellum MacAndrewi. {Radiata, PI. II.) 



Coral expanded, subcircular ? ; outline irregular, torn, with acute 

 marginal processes ; outer surface smooth, polished, as if varnished ; 

 septa thin, far apart, very finely crenulated on the edge in three 

 series ; the primary plates large, the secondary nearly as large, but 

 much more narrow near the centre ; the tertiary plates small, very 

 narrow. 



Hab. North Sea. 



The single imperfect specimen here described was found about 

 twenty-five miles from East Shetland, in ninety fathoms water. 



Mr. MacAndrew has kindly presented the specimen to the British 

 Museum collection. 



M. Milne-Edwards and M. Haime, in their monograph of the genus 

 Flabellum, published in the 'Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' ix. 

 p. 2.56 (in 1848), describe forty-three species, and divide them into 

 three sections, thus : — 



a. Coral becoming free by the progress of age. 



* Coral becoming free by the cessation of the adherence of the 



pedicel — Flabellines pedicellh. 

 ** Coral becoming free by the rupture of its base — F. tronquees. 



b. Coral always fixed by its enlarged h&s,e—F. fixees. 



The last section is very distinct from the two former, and might 

 almost form a separate genus, for which I should be inclined to retain 

 Dana's name oi Eiqihyllia. 



The other two sections are separated from one another by very 

 slight characters, which I believe are not even sufficient to separate 

 the specimens of the same species, for some specimens from the same 

 localities retain their narrow base, while in others this part is more or 

 less truncated. 



Indeed from the numerous specimens of this genus which I have 

 been enabled to examine in the Japanese boxes which are sent to the 

 Canton market, and from thence to London, and others brought from 

 Northern China by Mr. Fortune, I have little doubt that the species 

 is very variable. I had come to this conclusion, and arranged all the 

 specimens together in one tray m the British Museum, before Messrs. 

 Milne-Edwards and Haime came to examine the corals in the Museum 

 for description in their papers in the 'Annales des Sciences Naturelles' 

 for 1848 ; and the examination of the characters given by these natu- 

 ralists for their several species has not induced me to change my 

 opmion, which has, on the contrary, been strengthened by a second 

 comparison. 



I may state that we have in the British Museum two very distinct 

 recent species: — 1. Flabellum affine, Edwards and Haime, n. 31. 

 t. 8. f. 10, from Australia, which has very close plates. 2. Flabel- 

 lum Pavoninum, n. 1, from Japan and North China. And Milne- 

 Edwards and M. Haime have described another from the Falkland 



