570 DTt J. STUAET THOMSON ON 



Klunzinger, as described by him from the Red Sea. In both, the colony is encrusting, 

 and Klunzinger describes the colony of Alcyonium globulifcrum as brain-like in 

 appearance, a term which might with some slight stretch of imagination be also applied 

 to this species, especially if all the polyps had been in the retracted condition. In 

 both, the lobes composing the colony are pressed close together and flattened on their 

 adjacent sides, their shape above is flat-spherical ; the lobelets are separated by narrow 

 grooves, and the colour of the polyps is brown. I place my form as a distinct species 

 on account of the following differences : — In Alcyonium globulifcrum, the lobes bearing 

 the polyps stand on stalks "5-1 cm. in height ; in Alcyonium fauri, there are no stalks. 

 In Alcyonium globulifcrum, the polyp lobes are larger, the greatest being 2-3 cm. 

 broad ; in A. fauri, only 1*1 cm. broad. The spicules of the two species differ in shape. 

 The colour of Alcyonium globulifcrum is very white, of A. fauri brown, but one cannot 

 take the latter as an important specific character. A. fauri resembles A. purpureum, 

 Hickson, in the absence of a stalk to the polyp lobes, but differs from it in habitus, in 

 the absence of a soluble pigment, in having shorter polyp lobes, in the absence of spicules 

 arranged in triangular shields on the upper part of the polyp, and in other features. 



I have named this species after the Government steam trawler at the Cape, the 

 Pieter Faurc, on which these specimens were collected. This steamer received its 

 name from the Minister of Agriculture, Sir Pieter Faure, who took much interest in the 

 development of fishery and marine biological investigations in South Africa. 



Locality, etc. :— " Pieter Faure," No. 10,130. Cape St Blaize, N.N.W. 8 miles. 

 Depth, 36 fathoms. By large trawl. Nature of bottom, mud and sand with black 

 specks. Date, August 27, 1900. 



Alcyonium pachy dados, Kl. 



Plate II. fig. 14; PL IV. figs. 33 and 34. 



It may be doubted whether this form should not be placed under the genus 

 Lobularia, Savigny, but as Hickson has recently recorded this identical species from 

 Cape waters as Alcyonium pacliyclados, I hesitate to introduce a change. The genus 

 Lobularia was founded by Savigny and Lamarck in 1816. In 1857 Milne-Edwards 

 published a revision, and referred Lobularia to the genus Alcyonium. Klunzinger 

 (1877) described a number of species, including the one here under discussion, and placed 

 them under the genus Alcyonium. Wright and Studer (1889) separated Alcyonium 

 from Lobularia, regarding the latter as a tropical genus. Professor Studer has shown 

 me a form from Zanzibar which he regards as a typical Lobularia, and my specimen 

 appears to be more allied to it than to the genus Alcyonium. Wright and Studeb 

 wrote as follows : — " Lobularia can hardly be separated from Alcyonium, ami 

 Klunzinger has included it in the same genus. Yet one may with Ehrenreik: 

 distinguish as Lobularia forms, those Alcyonids in which the short broad stem is 

 furnished with a number of lobes and lappets and in which the ccenenchyma is very 



