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IV. Contrihiitions to our Knowledge of the Antipatharian Corals. By F. Jeffkey 

 Bell, M.A., Sec.R.M.S., Corr. Mem. Linn. Soc. KS.W., F.Z.S., Professor of 

 Comparative Anatomy and Zoology in King's College, London. 



Eeceived April 11th, read May 6th, 1890. 



[Plates XI. & XII.] 



I. Observations on a particularly fine example of the '■'■Black Coral" of the Mediter- 

 ranean lately acquired hy the Trustees of the British Museum. 



X HE Trustees of the British Museum have lately purchased from Messrs. Cresswell, 

 the well-known importers of Sponges, a very remarkable example of one of the best- 

 known of the products of the Mediterranean. Common enough as pieces of the 

 " black coral " of the Mediterranean are, and elaborate as were the classical researches 

 made on it by the eminent French naturalist, H. de Lacaze-Duthiers \ the size and 

 beauty of the specimen herewith figured are sufficient to justify me in oifering the 

 Society some account of its history and appearance. I have sent photographs - of it 

 to various naturalists and curators of museums, and I have been favoured by Dr. v. 

 Marenzeller, of the Museum in Vienna, with the following remarks : — " I have never 

 seen such a splendid specimen. Our Museum possesses an example from the Adriatic 

 nearly as high, but not so densely branched. There are also very large trunks without 

 branches. Your example is indeed what we call ' Cabinetstiick ersten Ranges.' " 



Dr. F. Bernard, of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris, has favoured me with 

 the following notes on the specimen, which, in the second edition of Lamarck's 

 ' Animaux sans Vertebres ' (t. ii. p. 491), is said to be " un echantillon gigantesque .... 

 dont le tronc cgale la grosseur du bras " — :" II a 63 centim. seulement de hauteur ; il 

 est en eifet reduit a ses grosses bi'anches ; tons les rameaux plus petits ont ete brises. 

 Le tronc mesure 12 centim. environ de large sur 8 du profondeur." 



Our President, who has lately visited many of the larger museums of the Continent, 

 assures me that nowhere has he seen a specimen which can vie with that which has 

 lately been acquired for the nation. 



Mr. Cresswell tells me that the specimen which he sold us was dredged by sponge- 



' Ann. Sci. ISTat. (Zool.) (.5) ii. p. 169. 



2 These -were taken for me, with great kindness, b}' m)- accomplished colleague Mr. Antony Gepp, 3I.A., 

 of the Department of Botany. 



VOL. XIII. — PAKT II. No. 7. — April, 1891. o 



