10 



VERRILL ON THE POLYPS OF THE 



stony near the base ; branchlets round, tapering to slender flexible points. Cells large, 

 campanulate, irregularly scattered. The cells are capable of moving in different direc- 

 tions, but in preserved specimens are generally turned downward. (Coll. Essex Instit.) 

 St. George's Bank and Bay of Fundy, in deep waters ; northern seas of Europe. 



Family BriaraceyE Milne-Edwards. 



Corallum branched or irregularly lobed, with thickened coenenchyma and a spiculose 

 or suberous axis. Cells irregularly scattered on all sides ; longitudinal ducts numerous, 

 in one or several irregular rows around the axis. 



Genus Paragorgia Milne-Edwards. 



Alcyonium [pars) Linn., Pallas, Lamarck, etc. Briaream [pars) Blainville (1830) and 

 Dana (1846). Lobularia (pars) Ehrenberg (1834). Paragorgia Milne-Edwards, Coralliaires, 

 i. p. 190 (1857). 



Corallum irregularly branched or lobed with stout branches, large polyps, and a thick 

 spongy axis filled with calcareous spicula, which render the axis quite hard in the larger 

 branches ; cells a little prominent, clustered upon the branches into groups. 



Paragorgia arborea Milne-Edwards. 



Alcyonium arboreum Linn., Syst. Nat., ed. x. (1758). Lobularia arborea Ehrenberg, Corall. des rotli. Meeres, p. 59 (1834). Bria- 

 reum arboreum Dana, Zooph., p. 614 (1846). Paragorgia arborea Milne-Edwards, Coralliaires, i. p. 190 (1857). 



Coarsely and irregularly branched in an arborescent form, often of large size. Branches 

 thick, irregular, covered with large tubercular prominences, on which are clustered the 

 cells ; these are large, somewhat prominent, and not very numerous. 



Color red or brownish yellow. 



Bay of Fundy ; Northern Europe. 



The only American specimen of this species that I have seen was presented by Dr. Wm. 

 Wood to the Portland Society of Natural History. This was obtained in the Bay of Fundy 

 by a fisherman, but nothing definite could be learned concerning the precise locality or 

 depth in which it occurred. Not being able to obtain the specimen for examination, I have 

 prepared the above description from European specimens in the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology. 



Genus Titanideum Agassiz, MS. 



Corallum irregularly dichotomous or simple ; coenenchyma rather thick, suberous, very 

 spiculose, traversed by well-developed longitudinal ducts arranged in a single series 

 around the axis. Cells disposed on all sides of the branches, not prominent. Axis per- 

 fectly distinct from the coenenchyma, compact, but soft, cork-like, composed of closely 

 united calcareous spicula. 



This genus is closely allied to Briareum, but differs in having a much more distinct and 

 compact axis, and longitudinal ducts in a single circle, as well as in its mode of growth. 



