MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 107 



Lophohelia prolifera Edw. & H. 



A variety with strongly marked primary and secondary costse. 

 In 291 fathoms off Grenada, and in 874 fathoms in lat. 17° 47' N., and 

 long. 67° 3' W. 



Amphihelia oculata Edw. & H. 



Numerous specimens, showing much variation. The most common form 

 agrees exactly with Prof. Duncan's Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of PI. XLV. of the 

 " Porcupine " Madreporaria, and is similarly deformed by a parasitic annelid ; 

 this has apparently the tendency to smooth out the striae. Another variety, 

 free of parasites, grows into long branches, with alternate calicles, forming 

 regular zigzags. Often each calicle gives out two opposite ones, one of them 

 forming the main branch, the other beginning a side branch on the same 

 pattern. Prof. Duncan's Fig. 1, PL XLVI., shows this mode of growth, but 

 not with the regularity of some of our specimens. It has also been represented 

 by Seguenza and by Moseley. Old branches of this form become much thick- 

 ened and compressed. Both forms are the same, since they are found in the 

 same specimen. The striae vary much, and I doubt if they present a sufficient 

 character to separate A. ocidata and ramea. Amphihelia sculpta, Seg., to 

 which I referred specimens dredged last year, is the same. 



Range from 164 to 892 fathoms, in seven stations, off Guadeloupe, Dominica, 

 Martinique, Grenadines, and Grenada. 



Axohelia mirabilis Duch. & Mich. 



Very common, and rather variable. None were found agreeing with 

 Axohelia Schrammi ; but those I had identified as A. myriaster and A. dumetosa 

 I have now good reason to believe are only differences of age. Old specimens 

 are generally coarsely striated, somewhat like the figure oi A. myriaster given 

 by M.-Edwards and Haime ; while younger branches are mostly granulated. 

 As Axohelia myriaster is an East Indian species, I shall use provisionally the 

 name first used by Duchassaing and Michelotti for the West Indian species ; 

 but having seen no specimen of the former, I cannot tell in what they 

 differ. 



Among the varieties there is one with slender branches and calicles, raised 

 on conical projections, as in Oculina varicosa. Specimens obtained from the 

 telegraph cable off Santiago de Cuba, in 90 fathoms, by Captain Cole of 

 the Telegraph steamer " Investigator," are stunted, sharply striated, the striae 

 almost ribbon-shaped. The calicles are sunken, often deformed, and some- 

 times surrounded by shallow open cells, twice as numerous as the septa, 

 producing a resemblance to some of the double-walled palaeozoic corals. 



Many specimens are deformed by barnacles occupying the end of the 

 branches, which soon become entirely covered by the coral, with the exception 

 of a small opening. 



