NO. 1624. DESCRIPTIONS OF HAWAIIAN ALCYONAEIA— NUTTING. 553 



the genus Chrysogorgia into subgenera along the lines suggested by 

 Versluys simplifies the problem greatly, although, as is usually the 

 case in large and widely distributed groux)s, there is more or less in- 

 tergradation between the subgenera, and these intergradations will 

 doubtless increase with our increasing knowledge. 



In the definitions of gToups the writer has endeavored to give 

 diagnoses rather than description ; to preserve the essential characters 

 while avoiding the confusing details that often obscure definition. 



Order ALCYONACEA Verrill. 



Polyps single or in colonies without an axis cylinder. 



Family CORNULARID^ Verrill. 



Polyps united by stolon-like processes, sometimes forming en- 

 crusting or lobular masses from which the individual polyps arise. 

 Sometimes the polyps bear lateral buds. 



Genus CLAVULARIA Quoy and Gaimard (modified). 



Spicules present. Colonies consisting of band-like stolons from 

 which the polyps arise singl}^, or of branched forms arising from a 

 stolon-like or encrusting base. 



The genus as here defined includes the genera Clavularia and 

 Telesto of authors, which were differentiated on the basis of the two 

 modes of growth above indicated. One of the new species described 

 below shows that these two modes are united in a single species. The 

 diagnostic feature by which these genera have been separated is 

 not of generic, or even specific, rank, and the genera are therefore 

 luiited in the one genus Clavularia. 



CLAVULARIA SPICULICOLA, new species. 



Plate XLI, fig. 1 : plate XLVII, fig. 1. 



Colony in the form of a creeping stolon which often surrounds a 

 long sponge spicule for its entire length, so that the spicule forms a 

 sort of false axis. 



At other times the stolon is band-like, covering but one side of the 

 spicule. The calyces vary greatly in their distance from each other, 

 there being no regularity whatever in their disposition, but they are 

 generally quite distant from each other, the distance perhaps aver- 

 aging about 5 mm. 



Other colonies exhibit an altogether different habit, taking on the 

 typical mode of growth of the genus Telesto^ forming branching 

 colonies, of which the branches arise as buds from the body of the 

 original or axial polyp. Branches of a second order also occur, and 



