506 MR. E. W. SnANN ON 



entrusted to me the task of identifying the specimens in the 

 collection. The collecting was carried on in shallow water around 

 the coast of Singapore ; the precise localities will be cited under 

 the description of the several species. Several examples of 

 Nephthyidte occur, and this necessitated facing the vexed ques- 

 tion of the classification of that family ; I shall state below my 

 reasons for adopting the scheme of classification advanced by 

 Kiikenthal. 



I wish to express my indebtedness to Prof. Hickson for his 

 constant advice as to my procedure and help in the pursuit of 

 literature bearing upon the subject. In the last-named branch 

 of the work I had frequent recourse to an exceedingly useful 

 catalogue of the Alcyonaria prejDared by Dr. J. Stuart Thomson. 

 My thanks are also due to Mr. J. T. Wadsworth for prepai-ing 

 the excellent photographs from which Plate LXII. figs. 7, 8, & 9 

 were made. 



In all eleven species are described, of which four are new. The 

 systematic positions of the several species are as follows : — 



Order ALCYONAOEA Verrill {pro 2xirte). 



Family ALCYONiiDiE. 



Sclero^jhytum 2nnn7 datum., sp. n. 



Family Tblestid^. 



Telesto ricpicola F. Milller. 



Famil}'^ JSTephthyid^. 



Nephthya hedfordi, sp. n. 

 Dendronei^lithya diHciformis Kiikenth. 

 Stereonephthya hctea, sp. n. 

 Farasjyongodes crassa Kiikenth. 



Family Siphonogorgtid/E. 



Si2yhonogorgia variabilis Hickson. 



Order GORGONACEA. 



Suborder Pseudaxonia, 



Family ScLEROGORGIIDiE. 



Suherogorgia suberosa Pallas, 



Family Melitodidje. 



Melitodes cdbitincta Ridley. 

 Psilacabaria yraciUima Ridley. 

 Wrightella robusta, sp. n. 



