"ALCYONIDIUM FLABELLIFORME.
Zoarium forming a flabelliform bilaminate expansion, spreading out from a short sub-cylindrical stem. Colour olive-brown. Texture soft and fleshy; surface smooth. Zooecia polygonal, about 0.75 x 0.55 mm., in circular groups, each group being composed of six or seven zooecia arranged concentrically round a small central zooecium 0.2 mm. in diameter.
Locality.—Cape Adare; washed up on the beach.
The new species is clearly related to A. flustroides (Busk), obtained by the Challenger from Station 142, south of Cape of Good Hope, 150 fathoms. In both species the zoarium is bilaminate, but the form of the colony in each case is very different; again, in Busk's species the zooecia are much more elongated and are arranged in irregular longitudinal lines.
The solitary specimen is 14 cm. in height, 12 cm. in breadth, and 1 to 1.5 mm. in thickness. The stalk is 1 cm. in height and 0.9 cm. in diameter. The surface, which is probably quite smooth in the living animal, is much wrinkled by the action of alcohol. The margin is rounded, but deeply incised in three places, thus giving rise to two smaller laminae growing in nearly the same plane as, and partly apposed to, the main lamina. On holding the specimen up to the light the zooecia and " brown bodies " are clearly visible. The orifices of the zooecia are flush with the general surface, and barely distinguishable. The tentacles appear to be about fourteen in number." (Kirkpatrick, 1902:289)
