EASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. 



7 



purple, also pure white. The largest specimens in the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 are four or five inches high, the branchlets about .5 of an inch in length. 

 Charleston, S. C, attached to stones and shells (L. Agassiz). 



Genus Leptogorgia Milne-Edwards. 



Gorgonia [pars) Lam., Lamx., Ehrenb., Dana, etc. Pkxaura [pars) Valenciennes, Comptes- 

 rendus, xli. p. 12 (1855). Leptogorgia Milne-Edwards, Coralliaires (1857). 



Corallum branching, often clichotomous ; branches slender with a central space on each 

 side destitute of cells, often marked by a median groove, by the contraction of the 

 ccenenchyma, which is usually rather thin, above the principal ducts. Cells fiat or but 

 little prominent, arranged in several lateral rows on each edge of the branches, often form- 

 ing two broad bands, separated by a narrow, median, naked space. Axis horn-like, slender, 

 often compressed. 



Leptogorgia virgulata Milne-Edwards. 



CoraUina Jruticosa elatioi; etc., Catesby, iii. tab. xiii. p. 13 (1750). Gorgonia ceratophyta (pars) Pallas, Elench. Zooph., p. 185 

 (17G6) (non Linn. ed. x.). Gorgonia ciminalis Ellis and Solander, Nat. Hist. Zooph., p. 82, tab. xii. f. 2, 3 (1786) (non Pallas). 

 Gorgonia juncea Bosc, Hist. Nat. des Vers, iii. p. 32, pi. 3, f. 1, 2, 3 (1802) (non Pallas). Gorgonia virgulata Lamarck, Anim. 

 sans Vert,, ii. p. 495 (1815); Lamouroux, Polyp. Plex., p. 412 (1816). Gorgonia Olivieri Lamx., 1. e., p. 400 (1810) ; Bosc, Nouv. 

 Diet., xiii. p. 313, (1817). Gorgonia virgulata Dana, Zoophytes, p. 662 (1846). Plexaura virgulata Valenciennes, Comptes-rendus, 

 xli. p. 12 (1855). Plexaura viminea Val., 1. c., p. 12 (yellow form). Leptogorgia virgulata Milne-Edwards, Coralliaires, i. p. 166 

 (1857). Leptogorgia viminea M.-Edw., 1. c., p. 165. 



Corallum slender, fasciculate ; trunk dividing a short distance above the base into two, 

 three, or more principal branches, rising nearly parallel and dividing a short distance above 

 into a few long, slender, virgate branchlets, which originate chiefly from the inner side 

 of the branches and rise at a very acute angle with them ; branchlets somewhat com- 

 pressed or angular, rarely terete, of almost uniform thickness to very near the end, when 

 they taper abruptly to an obtuse point. Cells small, usually oblong, and not at all prom- 

 inent on the branchlets, but near the base rounded and a little elevated ; on the branch- 

 lets they are placed in three or more irregular rows along the edges, leaving narrow naked 

 median spaces. Longitudinal grooves not usually apparent except on the larger branches. 

 Ccenenchyma smooth and rather thin. Axis slender, round, horn colored in the large 

 branches, brownish yellow and setiform in the small branchlets. Color exceedingly 

 variable, most frequently either bright lemon yellow or clear reddish purple, but often 

 orange, light yellow, gray, and white, in all cases uniform on the same specimen, although 

 the most diversely colored specimens often occur attached to the same shell or stone. 



According to the drawings of Prof. Agassiz, the polyps are, when expanded, small, 

 slender, and but little exserted. The tentacles are broad, rounded, with numerous, 

 crowded, rather shallow, even lobes. The tentacles are strengthened at the base with small 

 spicula, placed obliquely. 



Occurs abundantly a few feet below low-water mark along the coast of Georgia and 

 S. Carolina, extending from St. Mary's River, Fla., to Beaufort, N. C. 



A small parasitic shell (Volva uniplicata Sowb.) often occurs on the branches of this species, 

 and is invariably of the same color as the specimen upon which it lives. The same is true 

 of another species which lives on Leptogorgia rigida Verr. from Acapulco, Mex., a species 

 quite as variable in color as the present. 



