49 
shows characteristics approaching most nearly to those of S. herdmani. Close agreement is seen 
in the size and great number of the autozooids, the absence of siphonozooids, the spiculation, 
the texture and colouring, but the branching is considerably more irregular than that figured 
by Miss Pratt. From a short common basal stock, with diameters of 9 cm. and 4 cm. and a 
height of 2.3 cm., four stout, more or less upright trunks arise which give origin to lobes of 
varying size and shape, some digitiform with rounded ends up to 2.5 cm. in length by 7 mm. 
in breadth, others short,' lobe-like or flattened. 
The autozooids are extremely small and very numerous, regularly arranged over the 
surface of the capitulum and also found on the basal stalk at wider intervals. On the lobes 
there were counted up to 17 autozooids to 1 centimetre. (Miss Pratt recorded 20 to a centi¬ 
metre). The majority are in a state of contraction. 
The spicules include: 
(а) numerous small clubs with warty heads and a small handle often with two simple warts, 
thus approaching the S. leptoclados type. Average dimensions are 0.08 X 0.03 mm.; 
( б ) some stouter clubs with fewer stouter and rougher warts at the head, and a stronger more 
warty stalk; average dimensions are 0.15 X 0.06 mm. In the roughness of the handle 
many of the clubs correspond more nearly with Miss Pratt’s description than with 
Luttschwager’s diagnosis ; 
(c) longer slighter clubs up to 0.15 X 0.03 mm., with a less distinct head; 
(d) massive spindles covered with compound warts. The maximum length is 4 mm., but the 
majority do not exceed 2 mm. in length; 
( e ) small slender spindles bearing a few simple prominences. Average dimensions are 0.25 X 
0.02 mm.; 
(f) a few small spiny crosses. 
The colony is hard and rather brittle, but yields slightly to the touch. The colour is 
creamy with patches of a yellowish brown. 
A light-brown colony from Savu, with a height of 5.3 cm. and a maximum diameter of 
8.5 cm., shows all the polyps retracted and appearing as very small darker brown specks on 
the surface of the branches and lobes. 
Two colonies from Station 258, the larger with a height of 4 cm. and a maximum 
diameter of 9.6 cm. Both show a more open, less compressed mode of growth and lobes of a 
softer, almost rubbery texture. Both agree completely with our other specimens in spiculation 
and in size and number of the autozooids. The colour is brownish on trunk and lower branches, 
shading to almost white on the lobes, with the retracted polyps as small darker specks. 
Previously recorded from Ceylon (Galle and Aripu); Amboina; and Nicobar Islands. 
4. Sinularia querciformis (Pratt). (Plate XII, Fig. 2; Plate XXII, Fig. 2). 
For description see: Pratt, Fauna and Geography of Maidive and Laccadive Archipelagoes, 
1903, II, Part I, p. 530, 1 fig. 
Stat. 64. Djampea. Up to 32 M. 5 Ex. 
Stat. 123. Biaru-island. 36—27 M. Stone and Lithothamnion-bottom. 3 Ex. 
Stat. 299. io° 52'.4 S., I23 °i / .i E. 34 M. Mud, coral and Lithothamnion. 1 Ex. 
Stat. 322. Bawean-island. 32 M. Coral. 1 Ex. 
SIBOGA-EXPEDITIE XIII d. 7 
