[From introduction:]
In the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1857, p. 128, was printed a description of a new genus of
Gorgoniadae by Dr. J. E. Gray, founded on a specimen in the British Museum, the habitat of which was unknown. The genus was named by its describer
Acanthogorgia, and the specimen was figured, by an inadvertence, in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1851 (
Radiata, PI. Ill. fig. 2), under the name of
Nidalia occidentalis, instead of
Acanthogorgia hirsuta, Gray. I am now in a position to state that the native place of this curious Black Coral (of which no notice has been taken by M. Milne-Edwards in his work on Coralliaria) is Madeira; for I possess one specimen, and have seen others, obtained from deep water near that island. Last winter a specimen of Black Coral fell into my hands (also obtained from the same coast), which, though evidently belonging to the genus
Acanthogorgia, appeared on examination to be specifically distinct from the species previously described. I now proceed to lay before the Society a description of this second species, which I have named, in honour of the founder of the genus to which it belongs,
Acanthogorgia grayi.
