2 IO 
Genus Nicella. 
1. Nicella carinata Nutting. (Plate II, Figs. 5 and 6). 
For description see: NUTTING, Gorgonacea of the Siboga Exp., XIII b 3 , 1910, p. 29, 3 figs. 
Stat. 117. i°o / .5 N., 122 0 56'E. 80 M. Sand and Coral. 1 Ex. 
Stat. 257. Du-roa-strait, Kei Islands. Up to 52 M. Coral. 1 Ex. 
A fragment of a bleached yellowish brown colour, 2.9 cm. in height, with prominent 
calyces up to 1 mm. in height, agrees well with Nutting’s description and figures. Thus the 
spicules are of two main types, ( a ) minute yellowish double-heads densely tuberculate, and [ 5 ) 
larger colourless bars covered all over with minute roughnesses, but often showing a slight 
constriction at the waist. The polyps have an unusual dark chocolate colour. 
A sub-flabellate colony from Station 117, 3.5 cm. high with a maximum spread of 
1.5 cm., is of a more definite golden brown colour, but the polyps show the same deep 
chocolate colour. All the polyps are firmly retracted within the closed calyces which appear 
rather lower and more flattened than in the former specimen, about 0.6 mm. high and 1.3 mm. 
broad. They arise alternately except at the tip of a twig where they are nearly opposite. The 
spicules show the two main types, small yellow double heads and larger colourless bars, both 
densely tuberculate. 
Previously recorded by Nutting from these and other Stations. 
i. 
2. Nicella dichotoma Gray. 
For description see: 
Thomson and Russell, Alcyonarians collected on the Percy Sladen Exp.; Trans. Linn. Soc. 
XIII, 1909, p. 161, 2 figs. 
Also SIMPSON, Revision of Gorgonellidse. Proc. Irish. Acad. XXVIII, 1910, p. 363, 1 fig. 
Stat. 117. i°o'.5 N., 122 0 56'E. 80 M. Sand and coral. 1 Ex. 
Stat. 204. 4 0 20' S., I22°58 / E. From 75—94 M. Sand with dead shells. 2 Ex. 
Two grey-brown specimens from Station 204, the larger with a height of 16 cm., agree 
entirely with the descriptions given by Gray and by Thomson and Russell. Characteristic 
features are : The branching is in one plane, dichotomous, and without anastomosis; the surface 
of the coenenchyma shows irregular wavy ridges, producing a bark-like appearance; the verrucse 
are very prominent, arising at right angles to a height of about 2 mm. A fragment shows a 
Cirripede gall, as on the Thomson and Russell specimen. 
The spicules are of two main types: ( a ) double heads and occasional double stars, the 
difference Nutting makes being that the double stars have more prominent radiating points, 
whereas double heads have close-set knobs; and ( b ) larger spindle-types, mainly rough all over, 
mostly typical spindles, but occasionally with a hint of a median waist. A few relatively smooth 
spindles occur and there is an occasional cross. 
We agree with Simpson in the provisional retention of the genus Nicella because of the 
larger spindle-types of spicules. 
A small fragment from Station 117 has a height of 6.4 cm. 
Previously recorded from Salomon, Chagos Archipelago; and from Mauritius. 
