Excerpt from Alcyonaria of the Cape of Good Hope and Natal: I. Alcyonacea, Inaugural-Dissertation Zur Erlangung Der Doctorwürde Der Hohen Philosophischen Fakultät Der Universität Bern

The following is the first of a series of papers which I intend to issue on South African Alcyonaria. During a lengthened residence at the Cape of Good Hope, I devoted special attention to the Alcyonaria collected on board the Government steam trawler Pieter Fame. Professor hickson has contributed two papers on Cape Alcyonarians to the volumes Marine Investigations in South A fried, but since then a large number of forms have been dredged, and there still remain in the collection entrusted to me many unidentified and undescribed species. In this first instalment I have confined myself to the Alcyonacea. The present work has been carried on in the Zoological Institute and Museum of Natural History, Berne, and it would be difficult to overstate my indebtedness to Professor studer, who, besides giving me much valuable advice, stimulus, and encouragement, placed the entire literature of the subject at my disposal.

I have also to express my indebtedness to Professor J D. F. Gilchrist, Cape Town, who on my return to Europe entrusted this collection to me for report. This and other extensive collections were made under the auspices of the Cape Government, whose servant I was for a term of several years.* The photographs were taken in the Zoological Institute, Berne, and for help with these I have to thank, Dr F. Baumann, assistant in that department. Professor hickson has already given a summary of the species previously recorded from South Africa, and I hope to deal more fully in a later paper with the distribution of Alcyonaria on the coast of Cape Colony and Natal.

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