South African Alcyonacea. 
157 
" Pieter Faure," No. 86. Mossel Bay. Depth, 20 fathoms. Collected by 
shrimp trawl. Date of collection, June 24, 1898. 
Alcyonium Sollasi, Wright and Studer. 
The specimen is fragmentary, but apparently agrees in form with those 
collected during the voyage of the Challenger." The form and size of the 
spicules are also similar. 
The "Challenger" specimens were collected at the entrance to the 
Straits of Magellan at a depth of 55 fathoms, and were, as is the case with 
the Cape specimen, embedded in a mass of hardened sand and mud. 
Locality, etc. — ''Pieter Faure," No. 2034. G-reen Point Lighthouse, 
S. J W. 2| miles. Depth, 22 fathoms. Nature of bottom, stones and shells. 
Date of collection, March 5, 1900. 
Alcyonium sarcophytoides, Burchardt. 
This species is represented in the collection by one specimen in the 
form of a large, fleshy, plump mass, irregularly cylindrical in shape and 
yellow in colour. It is 78 mm. in length, and demarcated into a basal 
trunk-like part and an upper zooid-bearing portion, the surfaces of both 
of which are fairly rough. The basal part is 37 mm. in length and about 
29 mm. in diameter. The upper is 41 mm. in length and about 29 mm. at 
its greatest diameter. The diameter at the constriction between the basal 
and upper part is 15 by 16 mm. The basal part has a very irregular 
appearance, showing deep depressions on its surface. The upper part is 
not so irregular, the depressions being smaller, but at the apex there is a 
tendency towards the formation of lobes. On the surface of the upper part 
the anthozooids appear as 8-lobed elevations with white anthocodiae. 
The specimen agrees fairly well with the description of Alcyonium sarco- 
phytoides given by Burchardt, except that his specimen appears to have 
been a younger form, that " Zwirnrollen " are not entirely absent but rare 
in the zooid-bearing part of my specimen, and that in this case one might 
almost speak of a slight calyx. 
The specimen is extremely interesting in the occurrence of parts which 
resemble rudimentary siphonozooids, but regarding which I am in agreement 
with Burchardt in having the utmost difficulty in determining indubitably as 
siphonozooids. In Sclerophytumpolydactyhtm Pratt has also described similar, 
apparently degenerate siphonozooids which are coeca from the superficial 
transverse canals. I have had the opportunity of examining Pratt's slides 
of degenerate siphonozooids in Sclerophytum polydactylum, and it is obvious 
that in Alcyonium sarcophytoides one has a practically similar condition. 
The species is of great interest as pointing towards the fact that the genera 
Alcyonium, Sarcophytum and Sclerophytum (Sinularia) are probably not 
widely separated. Burchardt remarks that it is difficult to say whether 
