116 



IX. — On a neiv British Eschar a, and the occurrence, in Cornwall, of 

 Sphenotrochus Wrightii, of Gosse. — JBy Charles William 

 Peach, A.L.S. 



Eead at the Autumn Meeting, November 30, 1868. 



ON the 16th of June, 1848, I found, in a boat m Fowey 

 Harbour which had just returned from trawling in Lantivet 

 Bay, a small coral, which I looked at with a pocket lens, and 

 marked as Cellepora Icevis of Fleming. Comparatively little was 

 then known about such objects. I intended to give it a more 

 careful examination, but press of duty prevented me, and soon 

 afterwards I left for Scotland. This coral was packed with many 

 other things in a box, and there it remained until a few weeks 

 since, when, on opening the box, it turned up and was soon jiut 

 under the microscope, for I felt curious about it, knowing that 

 our best natu^ralists considered that Cellepora lavis was a northern 

 species only. When with Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, in 1864, dredging in 

 Shetland, specimens of Cellepora Icevis, with several other branched 

 corals, were brought up. As I had seen and studied the figures 

 and descriptions of these beautiful forms published by the late 

 lamented Mr. Alder, I at once saw that my specimen from Fowey 

 Harbour differed, not only from Cellepora Icevis, but also from all 

 other British branched corals that I had seen or read of. I have 

 therefore thought that a short notice of it may be interesting to 

 your Society :— 



Polyzoary, buff colour, dichotomously branched, the stem and 

 branches cylindrical and rough. 



Cells, arranged in six or seven rows, in a quincunx manner, 

 around the stem, deeply immersed, and very much roughened all 

 round by raised rounded eminences, which occasionally, in the 

 oldest parts, almost cover the cells, and form a rough net-work 

 around them ; these wart-like eminences, as well as the cells, are 

 covered with pit-like depressions. The young cells on the tips of 



