INTRODUCTION At the request of Dr. Dennis M. Devaney, Invertebrate Zoologist, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, I investigated a number of Polynesian soft corals kept in the Museum mentioned. At the same time Professor Paul J. Scheuer, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Chemistry, Honolulu, Hawaii, asked me to identify some octocorals from Enewetak Atoll (Marshall Is.) and from Ponape Island (Carolines). These collections include several well-known species which are not described in the present paper. I only mention their names with the localities added in parentheses: Cladiella pachyclados (Klunzinger, 1877) (American Samoa); Lobophytum borbonicum (Von Marenzeller, 1886) (Enewetak); Lobophytum pauciflorum (Ehrenberg, 1834) (Enewetak, Wake I., Kingman Reef, Cook Is.); Lobophytum schoedei Moser, 1919 (Wake I.); Sarcophyton acutangulum (Von Marenzeller, 1886) (American Samoa, Cook Is.); Sarcophyton crassocaule Moser, 1919 (Christmas I.); Sarcophyton ehrenbergi Von Marenzeller, 1886 (Fiji Is.); Sarcophyton glaucum (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833) (American Samoa, Enewetak); Sarcophyton trocheliophorum Von Marenzeller, 1886 (Fanning Atoll, Enewetak, Wake I., Washington L, Kingman Reef); Sinularia flexibilis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833) (Fiji Is.); Sinularia leptoclados (Ehrenberg, 1834) (Gambier Is., Fanning Atoll, Enewetak); Sinularia macrodactyla Kolonko, 1926 (Fiji Is.); Sinularia polydactyla (Ehrenberg, 1834) (Fiji Is., Guam, Samoa); Xenia crassa Schenk, 1896 (Fiji Is.); Xenia lillieae Roxas, 1933 (Fiji Is.); Xenia membranacea Schenk, 1896 (Carolines); Dendronephthya (Roxasia) mirabilis