52 ANTIPATIIARIA. 



Haplophyllia paradoxa Pourt. 

 Plate IL figs. 11, 12, and 13. 



Corallum subcylindrical, short, fixed by a broad base : epitbeca thick, 

 wrinkled, reaching above the border of the calicle, and forming around 

 the latter several concentric circles, as if formed of several layers. 

 Calicle circular, fossa deep. Septa smooth, without granulations or 

 perforations, not reaching the border of the calicle. with smooth en- 

 amelled surface, like the other internal parts of the calicle. Columella 

 formed of two smooth conical processes, very thick at the base and 

 tending to fill up the chambers. Eight septa larger and connecting 

 with the columella, alternating with smaller ones, which touch the 

 columella at a much lower level. A further cycle is indicated by mere 

 rudiments in some of the chambers. In the specimen there are irreg- 

 ularities in two of the systems or half-systems, one of which is closed 

 by a horizontal plate, probably to exclude a parasitic intruder. 



Polyp scarlet, greenish in alcohol, with about sixteen rather long 

 tentacles, bluntly tuberculated at the tip. 



Height 1.5 cm., diameter 1.2 cm. 



OffBaliia Honda, Flor'nla, in 324 fathoms. 



Suborder AXTIPATHARIA M.-Edw. & Haime. 



This suborder, with one single family, the Antipathiihv. constitutes a 

 very natural and homogenous group, if we remove from it the genus 

 Gerardia of Lacaze-Duthiers, which has no other relationship with the 

 other genera than the property of secreting a horny polypidom. The 

 polyps of a Gerardia differ in no particular from those of most of 

 the Zoanthiihe in the arrangement, number, or shape of the tentacles; 

 they even agree with that group in the habit of inerusting the derm 

 with small foreign bodies. Hence it would be quite proper to place 

 Gerardia LamarcM, Lacaze-Duthiers, the only species known, among 

 the Xoanthidav as type of a subfamily. 



The subdivision of the Antipathidae into genera by Blainville, Gray, 

 and Milne-Edwards is based entirely on the solid parts. The few 

 species of which I have had the opportunity of examining the polyps, 

 all belong to the genus Antipathes proper, according to the charac- 

 teristics heretofore adopted. It has seemed to me. however, that two 

 distinct types of polyps could lie distinguished, the one well circum- 



