ANTHOZOA. 
Ccel 2 
Faunistical, <fec. 
Bonnafont, Excursion et p^che du corail a La Calle, 1837 ; Bull. Soc. 
Acclim. 1877, pp. 715-728. R. Rathbun, Notes on the coral reefs of 
the Island of Itaparica, Bahia, and of Parahyba do Norte ; P. Bost. Soc. 
XX. [not published until 1879] pp. 39-41. On atoll-like reefs in areas of 
elevation (Yucatan Bank), see Agassiz’s letters. Bull. Mus. C. Z. v. 1 & 6, 
pp. 2 & 66. 
The new species and those figured or partly described by Bruggemann 
(1), Duncan (3), and Studer (9) are enumerated below. 
Anatomy and Pbysiology, &c. 
G. V. Koch (5) has studied the anatomy and histology of Isis elongata 
{neapolitana) and Gorgonia verrucosa. In the coenenchyma (mesoderm) of 
the former there is a double circle of small and large nutritive vessels, 
confluent into a lacunar system only at the bases of the polypites, where 
they communicate with their gastral cavities. Spicula are found in the 
mesoderm of the polypites, of the tentacula, and pinnulse, not in the 
coenenchyma, except at the base of the polypites. An axial canal tra- 
verses the whole stem and the branches, but there is no communication 
between that of the branches and of the stem. In both genera, the axial 
skeleton is invested with and secreted by an epithelial (ectodermal ?) 
layer. From investigations of the skeletal elements in other A Icyonaria^ 
this epithelial layer is shown to be present in all true Gorgoniidce^ and 
Isidm {Axifera., K.), and in the PennatuUdce and Antipatharia \ the axis 
or stem therefore is explained, in accordance with the views of Milne- 
Edwards, in all these forms, as a horny or more or less completely 
calcified basal secretion or exoskeleton. On the other hand it is a 
mesoskeleton, formed of the spicula of the coenenchyma, in the Pseud- 
axonia : Corallium, Sclerogorgia, Melitodes, and parts of Briaracece, the 
spicula being more or less fused together, or connected by a horny tissue, 
&c. The mesoskeleton may be found alone, as in Tubiporida, Pseud- 
axonia, and Alcyonida, or combined with an exoskeleton, as in Gor- 
goniida and Pennatulida. The Alcyonaria are accordingly distributed 
into eight families: Axifera (viz., Gorgoniidoe)^ Pennatulida., Pseudaxonia, 
Alcyonida, containing also Siphonogorgia and part of the Briaracea 
Roll.), Helioporida (mesoskeleton calcified, no spicula), Cornulariida, 
Tubiporida^ and Haimeida (single, the other compound). A few in- 
stances in which some of the rudimentary “ zooids ” of Pennatula were 
replaced by normally developed polypites, are noticed by Kocii (8). 
Lacaze-Duthiers’s (7) experiments with Balanophyllice and Garyo- 
pTiyllice, which had been preserved living and fasting in the dark for 
a long time, without change of water, confirm his opinion that the so- 
called “ stomach ” is only an oesophagus, the digestion going on deeper 
down. A CaryopJiyllia, preserved for several years without feeding, 
gradually withdrew its soft body from the polyparium and at last left it 
altogether. Caryophyllice left in the dark in the same manner were dis- 
coloured; the same effect resulting when deep-sea specimens were 
1878. [voL. XV.] c 3 
