NORTH AMERICAK ALCYONARIA. 551 



A comparison of the preparations of spicules, made from the 

 Alaskan specimen and from the ISTorwegian specimen, shows that 

 there is very little diiference either in size or shape between the 

 spicules of the two specimens. In fact, the preparations can 

 hardly be distinguished without the assistance of the labels 

 (text-fig. 2, A, B). 



In a recent paper, Nutting (1912, p. 99) has described two 

 species of the genus from the Japanese seas, one he attributes 

 to the species P. nodosa, of Koren and Danielssen and the other 

 to a new species, P. regalis. It does not appear to me that 

 either of these species is very well defined from the type-species, 

 but without examination of type-specimens from Japan it is 

 impossible to determine with certainty whether they are identical 

 with P. arbor ea or not. 



Family Primnoid.e. 

 Subfamily Primnoin.e. 



Primxoa willeyi, sp. n, (Text-fig. 3.) 



Locality. W.S.W. off Moresby Island, British Columbia, 

 100 fathoms. 



Concerning this species Prof. Willey writes : " In fishing for 

 halibut a magnificent scarlet Gorgonid was brought up on one 

 of the hooks. It was four feet in height, with a diameter at the 

 broken oflF base of 1'5 inches. The branches anastomose and 

 the axis is black and horny." 



Specimens of the Clavularia described above were growing on 

 the base of the horny stem of this Primnoa. 



The only specimens sent to me were a number of fragments 

 well preserved in formalin. I am unable therefore to give an 

 account of the colony as a whole or its method of branching. 

 The method of branching, so far as I can judge, is dichotomous, 

 but I have no evidence of the anastomoses referred to by 

 Prof. Willey. 



The structure and arrangement of the zooids, however, aflford 

 sulficient evidence to show that the species is not identical with 

 any that has hitherto been described. 



At the time of the publication of Yersluys' memoir on the 

 Primnoidfe (1906), there was only one well-established species of 

 the genus, the well-known Gorgonia reseda of Pallas, subse- 

 quently called Primnoa lepadifera by Lamouroux. 



Since that date Kinoshita (1908, p. 42) has described a new 

 species, Primnoa ixicifica, from the Sagami Sea. 



The genus Primnoa is distinguished from other Primnointe by 

 the irregular distribution of the zooids on the branches — or, in 

 other words, the zooids are not arranged in definite whorls nor 

 in definite spirals. Moreover, it seems to be a character of the 

 two known species that the zooids are bent downwards away 



