NO. 1923. DESCRIPTIONS OF PACIFIC ALCYONARIA— NUTTING. 37 



Combined length 31 cm. Stem to rudimentary leaves 5 cm., mth 

 a spindle-shaped swellmg \'idth its widest part 3.5 cm. from its end, 

 8 mm. ui diameter. There is no distinct end bulb, but the end is 

 curved. The axis is hard, stony, and quadrangular in section, 

 reaching to within 12 mm. of the end of the stem, hard and unyield- 

 ing to the end. Part of the fleshy part is stripped from the axis in 

 both specimens, but is still attached by the fleshy coenenchyma. 

 There are approximately 50 pairs of leaves, but some of them are so 

 matted together that then- number is hard to determine. 



The individual leaves are broad, and their borders so frilled that 

 their true shape is hard to determine. They are broadly triangidar, 

 with a much curved and frilled border. Length of fully developed 

 leaf 1.8 cm.; greatest width 2 cm. The polyps are arranged in single 

 rows at the two ends of the leaf, and in two or three rows throughout 

 the median portions of the polypiferous border. They are so soft 

 and matted together that it is almost impossible to count them with- 

 out separating them one by one; but there are from 45 to 50 in a 

 fully developed leaf. 



The individual calyx is slender, tubular, gradually enlarging toward 

 the margin, where it ends in eight rounded finger-like lobes which 

 might be mistaken for contracted tentacles. These lobes are con- 

 tinued downward, narrowing as they go, mto faintly defined per- 

 pendicular ridges running the entire length of the calyx wall. The 

 calyces are about 3 mm. in length and 2.8 mm. in diameter at the 

 margin. The polyps are well retracted, only their massed tentacles 

 showing above the calyx. The walls of the leaves are translucent, 

 and the septa and mesenterial filaments can be seen to the bottom or 

 stem part of the leaves. 



Zooids: The ventral zooids are numerous, in two broken series, 

 bordering an impressed line along the mid-ventral surface. From 

 these rows the lateral zooids run in single rows around between the 

 leaf bases, but do not extend to the dorsal surface. This is bare of 

 zooids, and seems to correspond to the ventral surface of Ptilo- 

 sarcus, for instance. 



Spicules: There are no spicules in leaves, polyps or coenenchyma 

 of rachis. Near the end bulb of the stem, however, there are numer- 

 ous minute calcareous particles embedded in the coenenchyma. 

 They are exceedingly irregular, and seem to have no characteristic 

 shape. 



Color: The entire colony is very pale yellowish-brown. 



Localities. — Station 4817; Niigata Light, S. 29° E., 18 miles; 61 

 fathoms (distal part of the colony), type. Station 4876; Old Shima, 

 S. 29° Y\., 5.3 miles; 59 fathoms (proximal part of colony). 



Type-specimen.— Csit. No. 30092, U.S.N.M. 



