27 
Of two specimens from Station 34, the larger shows a membranous base spreading over 
a sponge. From this base arise several stout fleshy stems, unbranched or giving off up to four 
branches. On the summits are borne the densely clustered polyps, of varied lengths up to 
9 mm., with tentacles up to 7 mm. long. The pinnules when fully expanded are markedly long, 
slender and tapering, arranged in three rows on each side with a bare space between, right up 
to the tip, though near the tip it is reduced to a narrow bare line. There are about 16—20 
pinnules in each row. The surface is covered with the numerous small calcareous discs, giving 
a powder-dusted appearance. The colour of the stems is a deep greyish cream with slightly 
lighter tentacles. 
A specimen from Kawassang shows on the fully expanded pinnules three distinct rows 
of pinnules, about twenty to twenty-three in each row, extended but not to their fullest extent. 
The surface is covered with very numerous oval discs, like red blood corpuscles, 0.025 mm. 
by 0.015 mm. 
A brownish colony from Station 64, Djampeah, with a firm stalk, 19 mm. in length and 
3 mm. in breadth, bears elongated polyps peculiarly narrow and very limp. A common length 
up to the base of the tentacles is 1 cm., with a breadth of 0.4 mm. The tentacles have a 
length of about 5 mm. The specimen is very poorly preserved, but the surface is thickly beset 
with very minute oval and circular corpuscles, and the numerous pinnules are arranged in three 
rows on each side. 
Numerous colonies from Station 93, Sanguisiapo are also growing on a sponge. One 
stem, 5 mm. in diameter, arising from the basal membrane, has developed, 6 cm. from the base, 
a secondary attaching disc with a length of 13 mm., which is fixed to another part of the sponge. 
Beyond it the stem continues free for 5 mm. and then is found the polyp-bearing summit. 
Another small colony from Station 93, of a rather lighter cream colour, shows the usual 
features; the pinnules are very fully expanded and tapering. 
Other colonies from Station 93, Sanguisiapo, some growing on a Turbo, show some stems 
with light brown colour, others with a faint greenish sheen, seen also on the pinnules and due 
to the spicules. They show similar characteristics of growth and pinnule arrangement (three 
rows of 20—22 on each side), but the maximum length of polyp is 5 mm., with a 4 mm. 
long tentacle. 
Two light brown colonies from Station 33 have the same mode of growth, and though 
the preservation of the pinnules is bad, some tentacles are seen with very fully expanded tapering 
pinnules. In the majority of the tentacles the pinnules are broken off at their base, and appear 
as low warts. 
6. Xenia novae-britannice Ashworth. (Plate XV, Figs. 1—4). 
For description see: ASHWORTH, Willey’s Zool. Results., Part 4, 1900, p. 518, 8 figs. 
Stat. 152. Waigeu. Reef. 1 Ex. 
A colony and fragments from Station 152 agree, as regards polyps, more nearly with 
X. novae-britannice than with any other species. They show very similar dimensions of polyp, 
which is of some significance in Xenia, (average length about 3 mm. very occasionally reaching 
