5i 
One type is cup-shaped, with a stalk-, the other is not cup-shaped, but with a much 
lobed capitulum. 
A cup-shaped specimen from Station 133 has a total height of 8 cm., with a stout 
stem, 3 cm. in average diameter, and a thin cup, 8.5 cm. by 6 cm., the margin of which is 
markedly notched and lobate. The retracted autozooids are most numerous on the margin and 
very sparse towards the centre of the cup. No siphonozooids are to be seen externally. The 
colour is light brown. 
Several small colonies from Station 299 show a similar type of growth, with, however, 
a frilled rather than dentate edge to the capitulum. 
The flattened specimen has a basal plate, with a length of 7.4 cm. and an average 
breadth of 3.2 cm., with a flat lobate margin to one side and numerous branching lobes arising 
densely over the whole surface. The total height is 3.1 cm. and the maximum height of a 
lobe is 2.5 cm. The autozooids are most numerous on the summits of the lobes. The colour is 
a deep cream. 
The spiculation of all the specimens is identical and agrees in detail with the original 
description. 
This is one of the most striking instances in the Collection of the unimportance of modes 
of growth, for the difference between the cup-form and the capitulum is so striking that it seems 
at first incredible that they can be referred to the same species, as is demanded by the identity 
of the very distinctive spiculation and of the general structure. It is of further interest that the 
same two types of growth should have occurred in the collection from the Maldives. 
Previously recorded from Ceylon, Red Sea and Maldives. 
6. Similciria rigida (Dana) var. amboinensis (Burchardt). 
For description see: BURCHARDT, Alcyonaceen von Thursday Island und von Amboina, II. 
Denkschr. med.-nat. Ges. Jena, 1898, p. 667, 2 figs. 
Stat. 299. io 0 52'.4S., I23°i / .i E. 34 M., Mud, coral and Lithothamnion. 1 Ex. 
A flat encrusting colony from Station 299 shows the characteristics of this variety 
described and figured by Burchardt. The basal stalk is low and flat with a maximum diameter 
of 5.5 cm. and height of 1.5 cm. From this arise several branches, some short simple, digiti- 
form, with rounded ends, others giving origin to short lobes or secondary digit-like branches. 
The majority are somewhat bent and twisted, with a gnarled appearance. The maximum length 
of a branch is 1.4 cm. 
The polyps are monomorphic, nowhere very crowded, but more numerous on the branches 
than on the surface of the stem, where they' occur at wide intervals. 
The spiculation includes: 
( a ) long-stalked and short-stalked clubs; some with very densely warted heads, the warts usually 
short and blunt; others with a terminal wart and a single whorl of warts at right angles, 
approaching the N. polydactyla type. These vary from very small forms, 0.09 X 0.05 mm., 
to much larger ones 0.28 X 0.08 mm. The handle of the club on the long-stalked types 
varies from almost smooth to rough, and often shows a curious twist; 
