868 " THETIS " SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



Stylaster eximius, Saville Kent, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1871, p. 278. 

 fd., Hick.son and England, Siboga Expeditie, Mon. viii., 

 1904— The Stylasterina, p. 9, pi. 1, figs. 1-8. 



Stylaster duchassaingi, Pourbales, 111. Cat. Miis. Comp. Zool. 

 Harvard, Deep-Sea Corals, 1871, p. 35, pi. vL, figs. 1, 2. Id., 

 Mosley, Rep. Sci. E,es. "Challenger" Exped., Zool., ii., 1881, 

 pp. 81, 87. 



Stations 44, 47, and 48. 



Several colonies have been referred to this species. The 

 majority occur growing upon the bare horny axis of an Alcyon- 

 arian, and are represented only in part. One markedly flabellate 

 -colony has a width of as much as 90 mm., while the tallest frag- 

 ment is 65 mm. high, and has a diameter of 4"5 mm. at the base. 

 The number of dactylozooids in a cyclosystem, judged by the 

 septa, is smaller than in most species of Stylaster, varying from 

 -eight to eleven or twelve, and rarely to even fourteen. Tlie 

 cyclosystems are in general bilaterally symmetrical, the lower lip 

 bracket-shaped and projecting, the upper with very few septal 

 ■divisions. They are often almost crescentic in shape, the long 

 axis lying across the direction of the braucli. Ampullse are 

 plentiful in most of the colonies. The colour is a creamy-white, 

 faintly tinged with varying densities of brown. The specimens 

 approach most closely the facies alius, Hicksou and England. 



Wote on Synonymy. — The designation Stylaster elegans, Duchas- 

 •saing and Michelotti (1864), having been found to be preoccupied, 

 the species was renamed in 1871, independently by Saville 

 Kent — S. eximius — and by Count Pourtales — S. duchassaingi. 

 The proper specific name is dependent upon which of those 

 dfsignations is prior in time of publication. Mosley, in the 

 "Challenger" Reports (1881), adopted the S. duchassaingi of 

 Count Pourtales, while Professor Hickson and Miss England in 

 1904 followed the S. eximius of Kent, placing in brackets after 

 the reference to Kent's paper the date 4th April, 1871, pre- 

 sumably in justification of their change of name. Erom our point 

 •of view, however, this date has no significance, for it records the 

 date only of the reading and not of the publication of Kent's 

 paper. The question of priority seemed, therefore, to be still in 

 abeyance. I have to thank Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, Secretary 

 -of the Zoological Society of London, and Dr. Samuel Henshaw, 

 Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, for 

 information which finally decides this question. According to 

 the former, Kent's paper was published in the " Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society of London" on 16th August, 1871; 

 .according to the latter, that of Pourtales was published on 30th 

 October, 1871. The species must therefore be known as Stylaster 



