96 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of sandstone exposed only at the lowest tides at Hilbre 

 Island. It is still to be found there, but in diminishing 

 quantity, owing to the increase of sewage and chemical 

 refuse in the river Dee. Small colonies occur rarely at 

 extreme low water mark on the beach at Beaumaris, and 

 large ones may be found at the same level in the caves on 

 the N. side of Puffin Island. I have dredged well-grown 

 colonies from depths varying from 5 to 10 fathoms in the 

 Menai Straits. Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey, depth 4 to 

 7 fathoms, is another Welsh locality."* An account of 

 the distribution of Alcyonium in the Plymouth, district is 

 given by Mr. E. J. Allen in the Journal of the Marine 

 Biological Association, Vol. V., No. 4, 1899. 



The size of the colony varies from that of a small 

 pin's head to six inches or more in height by eight 

 inches in breadth, according to the age of the colony 

 and the number of polyps of which it is composed. The 

 shape also varies very considerably. In the Plymouth 

 district I found the smallest forms to be flat encrusting 

 plates, which soon become convex above, and then grow 

 into dome-shaped and later spherical lumps, and similar 

 stages are found at Port Erin and elsewhere. Until the 

 colony reaches a height of 3 inches from the support on 

 which it grows it is not branched, but the larger specimens 

 are divided terminally into 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 blunt lobes 

 which have a very rough resemblance to large human 

 toes (Plate L, figs. 1 and 2). As these lobes are nearly 

 always arranged in one plane the popular name of " Dead 

 men's toes " has been applied to the species. 



The method of growth of the colony which is given here 

 is not constant ; but no systematic investigation has yet 

 been made of the laws which govern the growth of this 



* See also Herdman, L.M.B.C. Report No. I, 1886, on the 

 Alcyonaria of L.M.B.C. district. 



