BARBADOS-ANTIGUA EXPEDITION 113 
far described, but one is from the Atlantic, this one having been 
taken from St. Paul’s Rock. All of the others were secured by the 
Siboga expedition in the Dutch Hast Indies. The writer is con- 
siderably impressed with the number of East Indian forms 
found among the Alcyonaria secured at Barbados, and wonders 
whether or not a study of the other groups collected by us will 
bear further evidence of the same thing. 
Antipatharians——One of the commonest species secured in 
our dredging off Barbados was Antipathes columnaris, which 
greatly resembles a small bottle-brush with stiff wavy branches 
thickly implanted on the sides of the straight central stem. It 
was colored a golden brown and came up with almost every 
dredge-haul. Many specimens showed hollow tubes lying along 
the main stems formed by an annelid which is commensal in 
this species. A similar relationship is found to exist between 
many deep-sea gorgonians and annelids. In some cases the worm 
apparently has the power of causing the spicules of the gor- 
gonian to grow to enormous size, forming thin plates which are 
joined together so as to make a tunnel-like arcade running along 
the branches and furnishing a retreat within which the worm 
lives in relative security. 
Another, and less conspicuous form, is Antipathes spiralis, 
which is in the form of a stiff wiry, loosely coiled, unbranched 
stem, forming a spring-like helix. Like all antipatharians, its 
axis cylinder is covered with small thorny points which may 
serve to prevent the very loosely attached ccenenchyma and 
polyps from being stripped off. As it is, the stem is usually de- 
nuded before it reaches the surface in the ordinary course of 
dredging. This species was secured at a number of stations 
and at various depths. 
Several species of other kinds of branching Antipatharians 
were secured. One from Station 75, depth 35 to 60 fathoms, 
was flabellate in form, fifteen centimeters high, very profusely 
and delicately branched. This and smaller forms of Antipath- 
arians are often mistaken for hydroids; indeed the writer sel- 
dom receives collections of hydroids for identification that do 
not contain a few antipatharians. Certain species, again, re- 
semble some of the Chrysogorgide so closely that the mistake is 
