20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.43. 



tMck, and the spicules abundant. The endodermal canals are not in 

 direct communication with each other. 



Genus ALCYONIUM Linnseus (emended by Kukenthal). 



Colonies of various forms. Polyps retractile, as are the calyces 

 when evident. Canal system not divided distinctly into inner and 

 outer layers. 



• ALCYONIUM KUKENTHALI, new species. 



Plate 3, figs. 1, la; plate 18, fig. 1. 



Colony an exceedingly irregular lobulated mass, apparently broken 

 from a much larger specimen. Most of the sterile portion of the stem 

 is missing. The part of the colony present is 8.2 cm. high and 5.3 

 cm. wide. The opposite flat surfaces seem to have been the upper and 

 lower sides of a flattened lobular branch of the original colony. The 

 lower surface is largely devoid of polyps, and appears to be the naked 

 surface of the very broad fleshy, spongy, main stem. The upper sur- 

 face and lateral edges of the mass are almost covered with rounded 

 lobes of various sizes averaging about 1.5 cm. broad and 1.1 cm. high. 

 Each is born on a very short, thick, fleshy branch from the main stem. 

 A section of a large branch shows a spongy tissue traversed by very 

 numerous comparatively small canals, with no spicules in the walls 

 between them. The peripheral canals show externally as longitu- 

 dinal ridges. 



The polyps are thickly scattered over the lobes, and are completely 

 retractile, although many of them are fairly well expanded in the 

 specimen described, reaching a height of 2 mm. Their diameter is a 

 little over 1 mm. The polyp walls are ornamented with eight vertical 

 bands of tuberculate spindles, each band consisting of several irreg- 

 ular rows longitudinally placed and extending to the polyp margin. 

 There are a few scattered spindles between these rows. The tentacles 

 are rather long and deeply fringed. They appear to be destitute of 

 spindles. 



Spicules: These are very sparse in this species, being confined 

 merely to the rows of spindles just described on the polyp bodies. 

 There are none on the surface of the branches, and they also appear 

 to be absent in the spongy interior. They are nearly all smaU or 

 minute slender spmdles, with well marked verrucse. There are also 

 a very few minute cruciform spicules and rudely steUate and branched 

 forms. 



Color: The whole specimen is a pallid light brown. Another speci- 

 men in the same bottle, apparently the same species, has the polyps 

 all completely retracted, and the nodules subdivided or broken up into 

 smaller groups of polyps. 



Locality.— Stsition 5016; lat. 46° 44' 30" N.; long. 143° 45' E.; 64 

 fathoms. 



