166 "^he Philippine Journal of Science i9i6 



be forced to believe either that such colonies had reached a 

 maximum development or that the so-called siphonozooids were 

 immature autozooids as Kukenthal, May, and Schenk contend. 



One specimen, which may be simply a contracted specimen of 

 H. elisebethse, shows a strong resemblance to Xenia rigida of 

 May,^^ which is a species of Heteroxenia as evidenced by its di- 

 morphism.-^ Another specimen has a few siphonozooids similar 

 to those of H. elisebethse, crowded in the center of the capitulum, 

 and autozooids whose distal moieties appear both externally and 

 in section to be able to retract within the cavities of the proximal 

 portions — that is, within the fleshy stalk. This character has 

 been noted by Hickson in H. capensis,°^ but the other characters 

 make it probable that we have here a new species of Hete- 

 roxenia. 



In the genus Cespitularia we have a very interesting series of 

 specimens belonging to several different species. They range 

 from decidedly Xewla-M^G^ colonies, with long flexible polyps 

 which have all the appearance of the polyps of the ordinary reef 

 Xenia, the polyp-bearing portion of which, however, shows the 

 characteristic branching of the genus, to decidedly treelike colo- 

 nies with small polyps approaching in appearance the polyps of 

 the Nephthyidae and especially of the genus Lithophytum. Sev- 

 eral specimens resemble very closely Cespitularia coerulea May. 

 Another form has large delicate polyps, the tentacles of which 

 can be folded in over the oral surface. Still another, a distinctly 

 treelike colony from a cable at a depth of from 20 to 100 meters, 

 has large polyps whose distal portions are retractile within the 

 thin transparent proximal portions. A number of these forms 

 will, no doubt, prove to be new to science. 



It will be seen from the foregoing notes that the shallow coral 

 reefs of the Philippines support an abundant and varied fauna in 

 the families Cornulariidse, Tubiporidse, and Xeniidae. As this 

 has been shown to be the case in Ternate by Kukenthal " and 

 Schenk,*! in the Maldives *- and the Celebes ^^ by Hickson, in 

 New Guinea and the near-by islands by Hickson and Hiles *^ and 



''Jena. Zeitschr. f. Naturw. (1899), 33. 

 ^'Marine investigations in South Africa (1902), 1, 70. 

 *" Alcyonaceen von Ternate, Abha7idl. d. Seyickenb. naturf. Ges. (1896), 

 23, pt. 1. 



"Ibid. (1896), 23. 



" Fauna and geog. Maldive and Laccadive Archipelago, 2, pt. 1. 



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



"Willey's Zool. Res. (1900), 4, 66. 



