816 ME. J. T. JOHNSON ON THE [June 20, 



but I have a specimen which has put forth a Tery slender spineless 

 branch 150 millim. (nearly 6 in.) long. This abnormality was 

 perhaps due to the fact that the upper end of the stem, four or five 

 inches above the ramus, had been broken off by some accident, and 

 the branch may have been the result of an effort on the part of the 

 colony of polyps to continue their growth. 



"With regard to the spines, those of all the specimens I have seen 

 are simple and conical, but Brook says that the majority of those 

 on the older portions on the stems of specimens in the British 

 Museum formed double spines. 



Hah. Madeira. 



Stichopathes setacea G-ray. 



Antipathes (CirripatJies) setacea, Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 3, 

 vol. vi. p. 31 (1860). 



? Antipatlies simplex, Alcide d'Orbigny in Webb & Berthelot's 

 Hist. ISTat. des lies Canaries, Zoologie : Polypiers, p. 151. 



Dr. Gray's description of his A. setacea runs thus : — " Coral 

 simple, elongate, setaceous, straight, erect, closelj^ covered with 

 short conical spinules. Length 18 in. Hab. Madeira." He said 

 further that it was straight, without the slighest tendency to assume 

 a spiral form. Mr. Brook (Antipatharia of the ' Challenger,' p. 90) 

 stated that he had been unable to find Gray's type of A. setacea, 

 and added — " As I have no means of ascertaining what form Gray 

 did regard as A. setacea, and as his description of the type contains 

 no characacter not applicable to this species (i. e. Stichopathes 

 gracilis Gray), I have given A. setacea as a probable synonym." 



In going over my collection of Antipatharia for the purpose of 

 preparing this paper, 1 have found a small specimen, which, 

 fragmentary as it is, proves beyond a doubt that Gray's A. setacea 

 is a good species, quite distinct from Stichopathes gracilis. 



The specimen referred to is a portion of a stem broken at both 

 ends ; what remains has a length of only 14*5 millim. (5§ in.), 

 with a diameter at the thicker end of scarcely so much as '75 

 millim. It tapers very gradually, and there is a wide central 

 channel. It is bent into a semicircular form, and it has a brown 

 colour. The spines are numerous and arranged in longitudinal 

 rows, of which about six may be seen in one aspect. They are 

 upright, high in comparison with the diameter of the stems, and 

 more or less compressed. A few are simple and pointed, but 

 most of them are bifid or notched irregularly^ at the tips (fig. III. 2, 

 p. 823). Sometimes there are narrow longitudinal ridges bearing as 

 many as five spikes. Measuring from tip to tip of the spines in 

 the same row, the interval between any two is about equal to three 

 or four times the height of each. Polyps are altogether absent. 



The specific name and Gray's epithet " setaceous " ai-e suitable 

 enough to this very slender form, but are quite inapplicable to 

 Stichopathes gracilis. Alcide d'Orbigny (Joe. cit.), a reference not 

 given by Brook, described a small Antipathes from the Canaries, 



