114 



have failed to discover any traces of a bark or remains of any kind 

 of animal matter on their surface, until a few days ago, when Mr. 

 SamucLStevens brought to the Museum a very fine specimen of a 

 long simple-stemmed Antipathes from Seychelles, which appears to 

 be a new species, allied to A. spiralis, if more than a very fine 

 straight specimen of that species. 



This specimen is entirely covered from near the expanded base 

 to the apex (except at certain parts where the surface has been ac- 

 cidentally abraded) with a very distinct bark or animal covering. 



The bark is continuous, completely hiding the spinules of the sur- 

 face of the axis, smooth, and showing a number of thicker, browner, 

 irregular-shaped plates on the surface, which are separated from each 

 other in some places only by narrow crack-like grooves, and at others 

 by a considerable distance ; and there is no appearance, in the dry 

 state, as far as I can detect, of any apertures for the emission of the 

 heads of the polypes. 



The bark in its dry state is then tough and rather rigid ; when 

 soaked in water, it becomes thick, coriaceous externally, and fleshy 

 within ; when soaked in a solution of potash, the harder plates 

 appeared to be formed of a rather convex horny plate of irregular 

 shape and rather twisted on the surface, and the other part of 

 the bark is scattered with groups of very small, uniform-sized, re- 

 gular-shaped, oblong plates, of a somewhat similar consistence and 

 colour. 



The hard parts of the bark are quite distinct in form and ap- 

 pearance from the spiculae of the Gorgoniadce. They are hard and 

 brittle, not soluble in strong muriatic acid, nor are they affected by 

 a strong solution of caustic potass. They are most probably sdi- 

 ceous. 



I have not been able to discover the tentacles of the animal, though 

 1 have submitted them to the same process by which I observed them 

 in Leiopathes dichotoma, as mentioned in my former paper ; but I 

 have seen sufficient of the internal structure of the animal to lead 

 me to believe that in its general character it agrees with that of the 

 other Gorgoniadce. 



