440 The Philippine Journal of Science i»i3 



will make it possible to determine with greater security their 

 exact systematic position, and which will be of aid in the diag- 

 nosis of the other new species of this genus, which I have no 

 doubt further and more widespread collecting will discover in 

 the Philippines and in other localities. 



The 50 specimens might be superficially divided into two 

 groups on the basis of the consistency of the colony, the first 

 group containing those colonies which have a stiff rigid con- 

 sistency and in which the canal walls are thick and the spicules 

 of the canal walls and stem cortex closely approximated; the 

 second containing those specimens in which the colony is soft and 

 flabby and the spicules of the thin canal walls and of the stem 

 cortex are not closely approximated. This would, however, be 

 simply separating those colonies which were killed contracted 

 from those killed expanded, as all the soft flabby specimens are 

 colonies which I allowed to expand in an aquarium and amesthe- 

 tized with magnesium sulphate before killing. 



Much more real criteria on which to base a division are the 

 length and diameter of the stem and its proportion to the polyp- 

 bearing portion, the method of branching, and the position and 

 arrangement of the polyps. Using these characters the spec- 

 imens fall into 4 distinct groups as follows: 



(1) Capnella philippinensis forma typica. 



Those colonies in which the barren stem portion is short and thick, 

 expanding distally to give off the short thick branches and polyp- 

 bearing lobes. 



(2) Capnella philippinensis var. mindorensis var. nov. 



Those colonies in which the stem portion is long and slender, and 

 the polyp-bearing portion is small and composed of short thick 

 branches and polyp-bearing lobes. 



(3) Capnella philippinensis var. arborea var nov. 



Those specimens in which the colony has a distinctly tree-like form 

 with branches several times divided, in which the lobes are the 

 terminal twigs or their lateral branches and in which the polyps 

 are not scattered on the main stem and branches. 



(4) Capnella philippinensis var. albida var. nov. 



Those specimens in which the colony is tree-like in form but in which 

 the polyps are scattered on the surface of the main stem and 

 branches and on the slender terminal twigs which are not lobe-like 

 in form. 



Capnella philippinensis var. mindorensis var. nov. Plate I, figs. 3 



and 4. 



The stem is long and slender, in contracted specimens hard and 



rigid, in expanded specimens soft and flabby, and divides distally 



to form a polypary of a few short, thick, irregularly placed 



