14 



intermediate between llalcyonium proper and Renilla. I have, at 

 least, never seen the individual polyps disappear entirely under the 

 surface of the body, as we know to be the case among the true fleshy 

 Halcyoniums. 



For the distinction of the species, I shall propose the name of 

 Halcyonium carneum, designating its flesh-color, and also the greater 

 softness of the bulk when compared with the ordinary Halcyoniums. 



Gorgonia. 



The third genus of the Haley onoid Polypi which occurs along the 

 shores of the Southern States is the genus Gorgonia, with its many 

 species about the Florida Keys, one of which is very common as far 

 north as the Carolinas. Of this species I have had repeatedly an 

 opportunity to examine living specimens with their expanded animals. 

 The genus is well characterized by having a horny solid stem attached 

 by a spreading base to solid bodies at the bottom of the sea. 



The species vary greatly in the manner in which this stem branches 

 and in the combination of these branches into a spreading shrub-like 

 growth, with distinct branches or fan-like flat expansions and anasto- 

 mosing branches. Although there seems to be no regularity in the 

 distribution of the individual polyps upon the main stem, there is, 

 nevertheless, one circumstance which should not be lost sight of, and 

 requires further investigation fully to appreciate its meaning. It will 

 be observed, indeed, that upon one side of the stem there is a deep 

 furrow following the direction of the branches, as well as that of the 

 main stem, and so assigning a peculiar character to one side of the 

 branches. But how this furrow is formed I have not been able to 

 ascertain. No polyp rises from its depression, nor even from its 

 margin. They uniformly spring up from the plain surface of the 

 branches in the shape of short tubes expanding into eight, lobed, 

 rounded tentacles, supported at their base by calcareous spiculae. 

 The mouth is so regular as not to afford the means of distinguishing 

 the longitudinal axis. 



Even without taking into consideration the various modes in which 

 the individual polyps are combined to form a regular kidney-shaped 

 disk, as in Renilla, or an irregular spreading body, as in Halcyo- 

 nium, or a branching stalk, as in Gorgonia, we find in the structure 

 of the individual polypi differences which sufficiently characterize 

 these genera in the form of their tentacles. In Renilla the isolated 



