OF THE MEROUI AECHIPELA.nO. 



241 



macea are branched, it would have been difficult to distinguish 

 the three species, as in spiculation every fresh specimen appears 

 to present some slight difference, while the total differences of 

 spiculation in these species are slight, and thus admit of little 

 specific distiuction. Then, again, J. gemmacea, though commonly 

 branched, may be simple. Colour, too, appears to afford equally 

 little help in the determination of species. The form, size, and 

 distribution of the zooid-verrucse and. the proportions of the 

 corallum as a whole, seem to be the best points to rely upon. 

 J. elongata, however, seems to be distinct in spiculation. 



JlTNCELLA GEMMACEA, var. 



Verrucella gemmacea, Milne-Edwards Haime, Hist. Nat. 

 Coralliaires, i. p. 185, pi. B. 2. fig. 7. — Ellisella gemmacea, Gray, 

 Catalogue Lithophytes or Stony Corals, Sfc. p. 26. — Juncella 

 gemmacea, Kolliker, Icon. Histiologies, p. 140, fig. 191. — 

 Juncella gemmacea, Stitder, Monatsbericht k. Akad. Wiss 

 Berlin, 1878, p. 659. — Juncella gemmacea, Klunzinger, Korall. 

 Roth. Meeres, pt. i. p. 55. — Juncella gemmacea, Ridley, Report 

 Zool. Coll. H.M.S. 'Alert, 1 Brit. Mas. pp. 346, 580.— Juncella 

 elongata, var., op. cit. p. 346. 



In the ' Alert ' Eeport I applied the above name to some very 

 slender unbranched specimens with very prominent calicles, and 

 varying in colour from orange to scarlet. The present collection 

 contains two specimens which probably should also be referred 

 here. Of these one is dirty white or cream-colour, branched very 

 frequently, forming quite a dense head of short branches (about 

 | to 2 inches between bifurcations) ; the other is a fragment 

 of a deep red colour, with very few and long branches (probable 

 original length fully 6 inches) ; the maximum diameter of the axes 

 (without the verrucae) is about 3| millim. in both cases; a slight 

 bare line is constantly present on one face of the red specimen, and 

 on both faces, in parts at any rate, of the white specimen ; verrucae 

 small, crowded ; branching dichotomous. The club-spicules are 

 elongate, and the double stars are equally or almost equally 

 ended, and have few and promineut blunt tubercles. 



The specimen described in the ' Alert ' Eeport from the N.E. 

 const of Australia, and probably also that possibly from Formosa, 

 referred to (p. 347) as Juncella elongata, Pallas, var., appear to be 

 nothing more than the present species, it having been apparently 

 overlooked that Pallas's species has no club-spicules (Kolliker, 



