PROF. THOMSON AND MR. McQUEEN—REPORT ON THE ALCYONARIANS. 69 
end, which is always truncate. The stouter branches have a diameter of 
4mm. ; the more slender twigs of 2 mm. 
The preserved specimens have a dirty cream-colour, frequently tinged with 
pale sulphur-yellow along one side of a branch and near the tips of the 
twigs. In the living specimens the colour was bright light yellow, with dull 
red joints. The specific name rubrinodis has reference to the dark-red horny 
nodes, which shine indistinctly through the whitish coenenchyma, or appear 
as bright red patches where a branch has been broken away. 
The internodes are of very unequal lengths, varying from 7 to 32 mm. ; 
the caleareous axis, stripped of coenenchyma, has a diameter of 1-3 mm., 
and is white with a tinge of sulphur-yellow here and there. The longer 
branches may have as many as seven internodes; the shorter branches and 
the twigs consist of only one piece. 
Clathraria rubrinodis, Gray. 
Fig. 1. Spicules. Fig. 2. Details of calcareous joints. 
On the surface of the white calcareous axis there is a characteristic sculp- 
turing due to longitudinal furrows. There are two sets of these furrows 
which alternate with one another. One set is deeper than the other and of 
equal width throughout. The shallower furrows are constricted at regular 
intervals, and the broad portions of one shallow furrow lie between the 
constrictions of the similar furrow on either side. In these broad ovals the 
polyps appear to be set, 
