﻿238 The Philippine Journal of Science im 



tween such forms as Paralemnalia thyrsoides and such charac- 

 teristic Lithophyta as L. ramosa and L. arboreum. 



Our collection contains a number of specimens of the type 

 species of this genus, Paralemnalia thrysoides (Ehrbg.) Kuken- 

 thal. They are from three rather widely separated regions: 

 Bantayan Islands; Sabong (near Port Galera Bay), Mindoro; 

 and Batas Island on the east coast of Palawan. I found it 

 especially abundant on the reefs of the Sulu Sea side of Palawan, 

 where it was one of the common reef Alcyonaria. The spreading 

 colonies with their stiff upright stems reach a diameter of more 

 than a meter, and are usually found associated with Alcyonidse 

 to which they have a superficial resemblance. It is one of the 

 most beautiful of the Philippine reef Alcyonaria. The expanded 

 colony has in life a soft velvety appearance, owing to the long 

 flexible polyps which reach a length of from 10 to 15 millimeters. 



An examination of the stomodseal walls of these specimens has 

 demonstrated the presence of numerous spicules (fig. 8) some- 

 what similar to those found in the stomodseal walls of Lemnalia 

 (fig. 7). 



Judging from May's description and drawings (1899) and from 

 a study of a large collection of Lemnalia in our museum, I 

 suspect that Ammothea digitatum May which Kiikenthal has 

 included with L. flabellum as Paralemnalia flabellum is a species 

 of Lemnalia rather than of Paralemnalia or at least an inter- 

 grading form. A reference to May's figures (1899) of Am- 

 mothea digitata will show that the stems are branched. The 

 diagnosis is further based on the retractility of the polyps and 

 their arrangement singly on the stems. These characters must 

 be used with caution as it is very difficult to differentiate between 

 extreme contractility and retractility of polyps. A number of 

 species of Lemnalia in our collection have polyps which are 

 scattered singly on the stems and twigs and which are so strongly 

 contractile as scarcely to show above the surface and yet they 

 are unmistakably species of Lemnalia. 



Paralemnalia, however, as may be easily seen by a comparison 

 of the type species, P. thrysoides, with any species of Lemnalia, 

 is a distinct genus related to Lemnalia and Lemnalioidcs. It 

 forms with these two a series of closely related genera of which 

 Lemnalioides is most nearly related and Paralemnalia least 

 nearly related to the genus Lithophytum. The method of branch- 

 ing, the form of the colony, the arrangement of the polyps, and 

 the proportion between the barren and polyp-bearing portions of 

 the colony are similar in Lemnalia and Lemnalioidcs, but different 

 from that in Paralemnalia. Lemnalia and Paralemnalia, on the 



