512 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONEE OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [10] 



and obliquely seated on the branches. It belongs to the family Ghryso- 

 gorgidce, recently established by the writer for this and several other 

 related deep-sea genera, nearly all having a brilliantly iridescent axis 

 and most of them with spiral branches. 



We also dredged, in 858 to 1,735 fathoms, another allied new species, 

 representing a new genus in this family. I have called it Lepidogorgia 

 gracilis. It grows in the form of a very slender, tall, round, unbranched 

 stem, about 3 feet high. The axis is iridescent, and the root is divided 

 into many divergent branches, which are stony, white, round, and much 

 branched, and when detached look like branching corals of a very differ- 

 ent nature. The polyps are large, prominent, obliquely seated, secund 

 and far apart along the stem, which is covered with a thin layer of small 

 oblong scales. Lepidisis caryophyllia V. is also a coral that grows in 

 the shape of a tall simple stem, a yard or more high, but its axis is di- 

 vided into joints, the longer ones white, calcareous, and hollow, alterna- 

 ting with brown, short, horny ones. Its polyp-calicles are spinose and 

 very long and clavate, and when the tentacles are, as usually seen, rolled 

 up in a ball at the end, they resemble cloves in shape, a character to 

 which the name refers. It was often taken in 1,098 to 1,735 fathoms, 

 and its dead, stony joints must be abundant on the bottom, for they 

 afford attachment for many other creatures of various kinds. The 

 smaller and much branched, bush-like, orange-brown coral, Acanella 

 Normani Y., is the most common of all the corals. It has been dredged 

 in a great many localities, both by the "Fish Hawk" and ''Albatross," 

 in 225 to 1,300 fathoms, often in great numbers, several hundreds some- 

 times coming up in a single haul. It grows about a foot high, and is 

 often nearly as broad as high, its branches growing out three or four 

 together, in close whorls, from the horny joints. It is decidedly phos- 

 phorescent. Many other creatures, such as Actiniae, hydroids, barna- 

 cles, worms, and Ophiurans of several species are frequently attached to 

 it, so that in this way it is a valuable aid to us in bringing up these 

 abyssal creatures. One peculiar Ophiuran, AstrocJiele Lymani V., oc- 

 curs in great numbers on this coral, which is its regular home. It 

 twines its long slender arms, which bear numerous clusters of small 

 hooks, closely around the branches of the coral, and it cannot be easily 

 removed without breaking the arms. A dozen or more frequently occur 

 on a single coral, and are often accompanied by Ophiacantha millespina 

 and other species having similar habits. 



The Acanthogorgia armata V. is a large and much branched gorgonian 

 with a horny axis, and long, clavate, spinose calicles. Some fine living 

 specimens were taken in 407 and 640 fathoms. When living it was pale 

 orange, or salmon-color, but it quickly turns either dark brown or black 

 in alcohol or when dried. , On the outside of Brown's Bank, off Soutk- 

 ern Kova Scotia, at several stations, the " Albatross " dredged, in 101 to 

 131 fathoms, a number of good specimens of the great bush-coral, Prim- 



