THE ALC Y ON ARIA OF PORTO RICO. 
285 
Plexaura homomalla Larnouroux. Fig. H. 
( Gorgonia homomalla Esper.) 
Several specimens of thi's species were contained in the collection, all of the same general size and 
character. Color of dry specimens mostly black or very dark brown, kike the preceding species, the 
colonies branch profusely, with slight tendency to occupy a 
common plane. The branches arise obliquely from the base, 
but soon become vertical, the whole colony having a height 
of from 250 to 350 mm., with an almost equal breadth. The 
axis and ccenenchyma are quite similar in character to the 
former species, though the size of stem and branches average 
somewhat smaller. The calicles present some differences. In 
P. ftexuosa they are wholly included, and leave pit-like depres- 
sions, which thickly cover the entire surface. In P. homomalla, 
while the calicles are also included and very numerous and 
evenly distributed, they do not present the pit-like depressions 
of the former, but often have a definite raised border or edge. 
Fig. H shows characteristics of colony and of spicules. 
Plexaura crassa (Terrill. ) 
(Gorgonia crassa EUis & Solander; Gorgonia porosa, Esper; Plexaura porom 
E. & H.) 
Colon} - arborescent, about 300 to 400 mm. in height. 
Branches not numerous, but somewhat extended in common 
plane. The specimens are dull yellow to light chocolate 
brown, dry. Axis horny, black, hard. Ccenenchyma moder- 
ately thick, very friable, the surface thickly and rather uniformly covered with the pore-like calicles, 
which are oval in outline, and, as in P. flexuosa, are definitely depressed below the surface. Of the exact 
specific relations of the specimens there is some little doubt. 
Plate iv, figs. 1 to 12, show general features of colony and also of the spicules. 
Fig. H. — Spicules of Plexaura homomalla 
magnified. 
Plexaurella dichotoma Dana. 
( Gorgonia dichotoma Esp. ; G. multicauda Lamk.; G. heteropora Lamp.; Plexaura lieteropora , Lamx.; G. crassa Dana, 
Eunicea multicauda E. & H. ) 
An incomplete colony only was contained in the collection. Stem from 12 to 20 mm. in diameter, 
branches smooth, somewhat club-shaped. Color of dry specimen light brown or clay color. 
Of this very common and well-known species it is not deemed necessary to give figures of either 
colony or spicules. 
Heptogorgia solitaria Hargitt, nov. sp. ? Fig. Iv. 
In the collection were several specimens which in general aspects quite closely resembled the 
descriptions and figures of Xiphigorgia setacea E. & H. They were, however, very much shorter, and 
wholly devoid of the purplish border given for that species. The specimens were rather slender and 
ribbon-like in shape, with polyps arranged in a row along each margin of the stem and quite close 
together. In color (alcoholic), they were white, with a brown, horny axis, the whole somewhat flat- 
tened, as shown in Fig. K, 2. 
The colony measured from 100 to 170 mm. by about 3 to 3.5 mm., and is wholly devoid of 
branches. It would seem to arise from a somewhat fleshy creeping disk, but while several portions 
of the base, or what appeared such, were contained with the specimens in the bottle, having young 
polyps growing upon them, there was not a single one with a definite stem attached, the latter appar- 
ently having been detached in the process of dredging. The spicules, which are typical Leptogorgian, 
vary in form and size; one an attenuate, highly tuberculate spindle 0.12 to 0.16 mm. long by 0.03 
to 0.05 mm. thick, the other scaphoid in shape and 0.11 to 0.13 mm. long by 0.04 to 0.06 mm. thick. 
In some respects the specimen here described resembles Pourtales’s description of Acis solitaria , 
Bull. Comp. Zool., vol. i, p. 132; but the spicules are neither large nor scale-like. Not having access 
