X, D, 2 Light: Philippine Alcyonaria 161 



the cell, and the nucleus fits over its inner end like a cap. The 

 nuclei of these cells are at about the same level and form a 

 more or less regular row beyond the nuclei of the epithelial cells. 

 So far as I have been able to ascertain, this is the first alcyo- 

 narian in which nematocysts have been found in the stomodseal 

 walls. It is probable that its large size allows C. viridis to 

 Ingest fair-sized living animals which are killed by the discharge 

 of nematocysts, preliminary to being digested in the stomodaeum 

 by the products of the gland cells already described. 



The cells of the siphonoglyphe, which is very distinct, are 

 extremely long and slender with very long, slender, rod-shaped 

 nuclei. 



As Hickson ^^ has pointed out the muscular ridges of the 

 mesenteries are very numerous and long. In my experience 

 C. viridis is only second in this regard to C. violacea Quoy and 

 Gaimard, in which the muscle banners are enormously developed. 



Hickson -* speaks of the horny skeletal elements of C. viridis 

 as being present in wide lacunae in the mesogloea and figures 

 them there in section as deeply staining bodies. In his figure 

 the spaces are much smaller in proportion to the size of the 

 central bodies than in my specimens. Indeed, after studying 

 an extensive series of sections, I am convinced that the struc- 

 tures which Hickson figured as skeletal elements are merely 

 the nuclei of spicule-forming cells. The true skeletal fibers 

 are to be found in the ectoderm, appearing in sections as deeply 

 staining crescents averaging 0.01 millimeter in length and 0.003 

 millimeter in greatest diameter. In a few instances these bodies 

 are found in the edge of the mesogloea, in which case they are 

 always associated with large cells evidently amoeboid in charac- 

 ter and characterized by a very distinctly reticulated cytoplasm, 

 a small central nucleus with a number of chromatin centers, 

 and a few deeply staining granules in the cytoplasm. Further 

 study may show these cells to be the skeleton-producing cells. 



Another striking and widely distributed Philippine species of 

 Clavularia is Clavularia violacea Quoy and Gaimard.^^ We have 

 numerous specimens of this from Mindoro and Palawan and 

 single specimens from Bantayan and from Mariveles. The red 

 of the proximal portions of the polyp and of the base and the 

 brillant green of its distal moieties make it a very conspicuous 

 reef alcyonarian. The distal moieties of the polyps have about 



" Trans. Zool. Soc. London (1895), 13. 



" Zoologie du Voyage de I'Astrolabe (1834). 



