X, D, 3 Light: Notes on Philippine Alcyonaria '205 



known species, C. cornucopise (Pallas) Schweigger, first de- 

 scribed by Pallas (1766) as Tubularia cornucopise. This form 

 is common in the Mediterranean and has been carefully de- 

 scribed and figured by Cavolini (1785) and von Koch (1890). 

 Busk (1867) named a new species, from Australia, Cornularia 

 australis, basing the separation of the species on the smoothness 

 of the horny covering of the polyps and on the difi'erence in 

 color. These seem to be rather slight grounds for establish- 

 ing a new species, but we have the statement of so excellent 

 an observer as Allman (Busk 1867), who was familiar with 

 Cornularia cornucopise of the Mediterranean, that C. australis 

 is specifically distinct, and the fact that the habitats of the 

 species are widely separated is further justification for retain- 

 ing Busk's species. The identity of the species of Cornularia 

 named by Kent (1893), of which he gives figures but only very 

 general descriptions, must remain in doubt. Before even their 

 generic position can be definitely stated, we must know whether 

 or not they have spicules, whether or not there is an outer horny 

 envelope, and whether or not the polyps are retractile, and if 

 retractile whether they are entirely retractile or whether they 

 have a distal moiety retractile within a proximal moiety. None 

 of these facts are given by Kent. His C. parva and C. glauca 

 appear to be species of the genus Anthelia of the same general 

 form as Dana's Rhizoxenia primula, supposing that form to have 

 had connecting stolons. His C. tubiporoides has all the appear- 

 ance of a species of Clavularia, somewhat similar, except in the 

 length of the tentacles, to Clavularia violacea Quoy and Gaimard 

 (1834). His C. auricula is very diflficult to place. If it has, as 

 Kent (1893) says, smooth tentacles without any pinnules what- 

 soever, it may belong to a new group of Alcyonaria as yet un- 

 named.^ Cornula7Ha crassa Milne-Edwards, according to Sars 

 (1857) and Miiller (1910) , is the same as Evagora rosea Philippi 

 (1842) = Rhizoxenia rosea Dana (1846). The species of Cor- 

 nularia described by Quoy and Gaimard belong to other genera. 



Whatever the systematic position of these doubtful forms may 

 be, they show no resemblance to Cornularia minuta. The minute 

 size, the very thin, perisarclike, horny envelope, the presence 

 in the stolons .of a thick homogeneous mesogloea pierced by several 

 endodermal canals, and the broadly cone-shaped form of its con- 

 tracted polyps mark Cornularia minuta as a very distinctly new 

 species. 



^ I have been unable to find any pinnules in Clavularia violacea Quoy and 

 Gaimard. 



