PENNATTJLIDA OF TIIE ME E GUI AECHIPEL A GO . 



277 



Height of largest leaf 13 ram. 



Ventral border of largest leaf 25 



Base of attachment of largest leaf ... 5 



Number of rays 13 



LeDgtli of spines 2'5-3"5 



Subsection 2. Virgulariece. 

 Family i. Virgttlariidje. 

 Genus Virgttlaria, Lamarck. 

 Virgttlaria Kttmphii, Kolliker. 



Of this fine species there are three specimens, two of which are 

 entire, while the third has been cut off, apparently by the dredge, 

 at the junction of stalk and rachis. In consequence of their 

 great length, all three have been broken in order to allow of 

 their preservation in tubes of ordinary size. 



Kolliker named the species from a single specimen, from Am- 

 boina, in the Berlin Museum * ; we have met with no other 

 account of it, and have therefore thought it well to describe our 

 specimens in some detail. 



The colonies, which are very long, up to 900 millim., are slender, 

 rod-like, and of nearly uniform diameter along their entire length. 

 The stalk is long and cylindrical, and ends below in a dilated 

 vesicle, which is fairly obvious in the largest specimen, though 

 contracted and inconspicuous in the other. In this, as in other 

 species of Pennatulida, the presence or absence of a terminal 

 vesicle to the stalk depends very largely on the degree of con- 

 traction of the specimen, and is a character of no practical value 

 in classification. 



The axis is stout, brittle, and oval in transverse section. Its 

 upper end is abruptly truncated, and projects freely for some 

 millimetres above the fleshy part of the rachis. This projection 

 occurs during life, as in one specimen a couple of barnacles were 

 adherent to the exposed part of the axis. At the lower end of 

 the rachis the axis tapers rapidly ; it enters the stalk, but only 

 extends a short distance along it, ending in a slender hooked 

 extremity. The surface of the axis along the whole length of 

 the rachis is sculptured by irregularly arranged and intercrossing 

 grooves. 



The fleshy part of the rachis along the greater part of its 

 * Kolliker, Alcyonarien, pp. 202-205, and pi. xiii. figs. 123-124. 



