22 SLADKN TKUST EXrEDITIONS TO ABROLHOS ISLANDS. 
basal bulbous swelling. The autozooids are large, and most of them are fully 
expanded. The siphonozooids are numerous and irregularly scattered on 
the rachis; they extend a considerable distance down the stalk beyond the 
last autozooid. The stomodiiea have a dorsal ventral diameter o£ 0-14 mm. 
The axis is well developed, quadrangular in section, the diagonal measurement 
being 1'5 mm. in its thickest part. I have not dissected out the axis from 
tliis beautifully preserved specimen, but it can be seen through the transparent 
tissues to be at least two-thirds o£ the total length of the colony. 
The spicules of the rachis are long, thin plates with jagged edges, large 
ones measuring 0-25 x 0"07 mm., but they are very variable in shape and 
size, and scattered or clustered. In the expanded part of the autozooids, 
spicules are very scarce. I have seen one or two at the base of the tentacles, 
but none in the tentacles themselves. 
The type-specimens of this species were found in the Bay of Bima on 
Sumbawa Island, Malay Archipelago, at a depth of 55 metres, and I have 
been able to compare the characters of the specimen from W. Australia with 
the type-specimens which are at present under my care. The specimens 
from Shark's Bay that were named by Gray Policella australis were trans- 
ferred to the genus Veretillum by Kiikenthal and Broch, and, in my opinion, 
this transference was fully justified. 
The principal difference between the species Veretillum malayense and 
V. australe is that the autozooids of the former are about twice the size of the 
autozooids of the latter. This character — the size of the autozooids — maybe 
more variable than we are justified in assuming on our knowledge of the 
half-dozen specimens that have been described, and the two species may be 
merged into one in the near future. But it is clear that the specimen 
described above agrees more closely with the specimens hitherto called 
V. malayense than it does with those described as Policella (or Veretillum 
australis) . 
Pteroides sp. ?, juv. 20 fathoms. Outside Wallaby Group. 
Length of rachis 25 mm., length of stalk 31 mm. Leaves 11-10. 
Number of rays on largest leaves 5. Siphonozooid plate basal. 
This specimen is evidently a juvenile form, as is shown by its small size, bj' 
the small number of leaves,' by the rudimentary character of the lower 
leaves, and by the relative length of the stalk. It \aaj also be regarded 
as a sign of juvenility that there is onlj' a single row of autozooids on the 
greater part of the margin of the largest leaves, an additional autozooid of 
what may be a second row a]jpearing only in one or two isolated places. 
As it is impossible, in the present state of our knowledge, to determine 
accurately the relations of the juvenile forms of this genus, the principal 
point of interest is to consider whether it is a juvenile of the only species of 
