ALCYONAKIA —J. A. THOMSON AND DORIS L. MACKINNON. 691 



Family GORGONELLID^. 



Genus CTENOCELLAi°, Valenciennes. 



OTENOCELLA PEOTINATA, Pallas. 



(Plate Ixxxi.) 



Ctenocella pectinata, Pallas, Elenchus Zoophytorum, 1766, p. 179. 



Ctenocella pectinaia, Ridley, Zool. Coll. H.M.S. "Alert," 1884, 

 p. 348. 



Ctenocella pectinaia, Wright and Sbuder, Chall. Rep., Zool., xxxi., 

 1889, p Ixvi. 



Stations 34, 42, 44, 47. 



There are several very perfect colonies of typical lyre-shape ; 

 they are all in the dried condition. The height of the largest 

 specimen is 50 cm., with a width of 42 cm. From a slightly 

 encrusting base rises a cylindrical stem, 7 mm. in diameter, 

 which soon forks. The two branches thus formed diverge at an 

 angle of 45°, and give off, along the upper side only, a series of 

 parallel, ascending twiijs. The space between two twigs is about 

 8 mm. One or two of these lesser branches may be stronger 

 than the rest, and may give off nuuierous ascending twigs in turn, 

 or fork dichotomously. More generally, the branches are simple, 

 from 4-12 cm. in length, and with an almost uniform diameter of 

 2-3 mm. 



The axis is light brown, and strongly furrowed. The coen- 

 enchyma is thin, but very compact and smooth ; in many places 

 a distinct median furrow can be made out. 



The polyps have, on the twigs, an irregular bilateral arrange- 

 ment, but on the larger branches they occur all over the surface. 

 They are very numerous, about 5 mm. apart, and are all retracted 

 into very low, wart-like verrucae. 



The spicules include the following types : — colourless double 

 clubs — 068 X •034 mm.; -051 x ■034 mm.; a few crosses — 051 x 

 •051 mm.; '034 x 034 mm.; and more elongated forms approach- 

 ing double-spindles, with scarcely any "waist" — '085 x •025mm.; 

 •068 X 0-25 mm. 



The colour of the specimens is cream-white to yellowish. 



Locality. — Eleven miles east of Broken Bay. 



Previously recorded from Indian Ocean, seas of the Moluccas, 

 India and China, Cuba, Australia (Warrior Reefs, Torres Strait, 

 12 fathoms ; off N. W. Cape, W. Australia, 3-4 fathoms). 



1° In his " Revision of the GorgonellidcB " (Proc. Roy. Irish Academy, 

 1910, p. 319), Mr. J. J. Simpson has shown convincingly that the genus 

 Ctenocella should be merged in Scirpearia, 

 R R 



