2M 



MR. S. O. RIDLEY ON ALCYONAR1A 



A dry specimen about 14 inches in height (if it ever stood 

 upright), firmly rooted to a piece of quartz, over which the base 

 spreads as a thin lamina nearly 5 inches by 3 inches in breadth. 



The longer spicule of this species appears to be confined to 

 the deeper parts of the cortex, hence is liable to be overlooked. 



Sab. King Island Bay. 



Distribution. " Sea which washes South Africa, and Indian 

 Ocean " {Pallas) ; N.W. coast of Australia (Studer) ; Port 

 Denison, Queensland, and Torres Straits (' Alert ' Coll.) ; Mau- 

 ritius (Coll. Brit. Mus.). 



Th's species, so abundant in the Indian Ocean, is, like the 

 preceding one, apparently not found in the Red Sea (cf. Klun- 

 zinger, Korall. Both. Jlfeeres, pt. i. p. 57). 



Family Melith jetd m. 

 Mops ella tlaniloca *, n. sp. (Plate XVIII. fig. 6.) 



Corallum strong, flabellate, reticulate. Basal portion massive, 

 unjointed, dividing into several short, imperfectly joined axes, 

 which proceed to break up, by branching at very acute angles, into 

 fronds composed of very narrow elongate meshes, in which 

 comparatively little distinction between the stoutness or length 

 of the internodes (hard joints) and little difference in the thick- 

 ness of the branches can be made out from top to bottom of the 

 frond; nodes (soft joints) diminishing in stoutness from below 

 upwards ; meshes 3 millim. in average short diameter ; long 

 (vertical) diameter very variable (3 to 45 millim. observed), owing 

 to the great variation in the completeness to which the anasto- 

 mosis of the branches is carried, and the difference in length 

 between the short lower and the longer distal internodes (the latter 

 forming the greater number of the whole) ; distal internodes 

 slightly tortuous, round to oval in transverse section, but generally 

 BOmewhat antero-posteriorly compressed, fairly constant in lengt h, 

 nz.9 millim.; thickness (in median to subtcrminal branches) about 

 '1\ by 2 millim. Nodes rugged, subglobular, rather compressed 

 laterally, commonly with an angular margin below, ranging in 

 diameter from about 7 millim. in the proximal to 2 millim. in the 

 distal or subtcrminal nodes. Colour of the axis of the nodes and 

 of tin; spongy proximal internodes pale brick-red, that of distal 

 internodes rather deep pink. Cortex thin (equal to rather thick 



* From the lerel charnctcr of the coBnenohyma, 



