Lepidisis nuda (Wright & Studer, 1889)  

Transcribed from Wright & Studer 1889

Axis unbranched. Calcareous internodes 4 to 6 cm. long; in the younger portions hollow, older portions solid. Polyps rather thickly crowded on axis, in irregular verticils, short, with swollen bases. Coenenchyma of axis membranous; puckering into folds on drying; without spicules. Base of polyps without spicules, a few small needle-shaped spicules on the dorsal side of the polyps. The tentacles large, imperfectly retractile, crowded with acicular spicules. A few broken specimens of this species were found among other Alcyonaria collected on the reefs at Fiji. As no species of this genus has been found in shallow water, it is probable that this was dredged from deepish water outside the reef. The coenenchyme is the least protected by apicules of all the species of the genus so far described. The spicules are but feebly developed, and measure 0.77-0.05; 0.73-0.07; 0.2-0.03; 0.12-0.02 mm.