52 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



SEA-FANS. 



By Major Holland, R.M.L.I. 



"pLINY appears to have been the first writer who 

 -'- published anything about these zoophytes : 

 having mistaken them for mineral trees, he named 

 them Gorgon'ue, after those alarming young ladies 

 whose snaky locks turned all beholders into stone. 

 We have lately seen some astounding tilings in 

 the way of chignons ; seaweeds, beetles, creeping 

 things, and fowls of the air, have been fastened 

 about the heads of fair ladies, often with marked 

 effect ; but a coiffure a la Gorgone, even in these 

 sensational times would petrify everybody with 

 astonishment; "a sweet thing in vipers," or "a 

 recherche production in asps," may, however, one 

 of these days be submitted to the judgment of 

 a discriminating public by some enterprising 

 Mantalini. 



From the time of the great Roman naturalist, 

 who, by the way, was an admiral "on active 

 service and full pay," commanding the squadron 

 at Misenum, when his devotion to the pheno- 

 mena of volcanic eruptions cost him his life, a.d. 79, 

 — little or nothing was said about them until 

 a.d. 1706, when Marsigli, having satisfied himself 

 that they were not arborescent stones, announced 

 to the Academie des Sciences de Paris that they 

 were plants, producing flowers which expanded in 

 water, but closed when the branch was exposed to 

 the air. 



The French claim for a Frenchman, Peyssonel, 

 medecin-botaniste du JRoi, the'sole and entire honour 

 of having first discovered and demonstrated their 

 animal nature. Peyssonel came across them while 

 studying the marine flora of the coasts of Provence 

 and Barbary. The Museum of Natural History of 

 Paris possesses the manuscript of his " Traite du 

 Corail" written a.d. 1727, in which corals, mad- 

 repores, lithophytes, and sponges are discussed. 

 He shows that the zoophytes are " des agregations 

 d'animaux" and compares them to the " orties 

 de mer," whose nature was then fairly under- 

 stood. Let us read the account of his first experi- 

 ment upon them in his own words : — " J'avais le 

 plaisir de voir remuer les pattes, ou pieds, de cette 

 ortie ; et ayant mis le vase plein d'eau, oil le corail 

 etait, pres du feu, tous ces petits insectes s'epanou- 

 irent. Je poussai le feu et je fis bouillir l'eau, et je 

 les conservais epanouis hors du corail ; ce qui arrive 

 de la meme facon que quand on fait cuire tous les 

 testaces, tant marins que terrestres." This remark- 

 able manuscript, though never published in France, 

 appeared in " Philosophical Transactions," a.d. 1756. 

 This production of the medical botanist of " Louis- 

 le-bien-aime" was followed by the valuable memoir 

 of Cavolini, " di Polipi marini" published at 



Naples a.d. 17S5, and still quoted as authoritative 

 by writers of the present day. 



There are, perhaps, but few among us who, using 

 the microscope either as a scientific instrument or 

 as a toy, cannot boast of the possession of a well- 

 mounted slide or two neatly labelled " Gorgonia 

 Spicules "; some of us have followed Marsigli's 

 lead, and have been satisfied that they are vegetable 

 productions allied to raphides, which they some- 

 what resemble, and very few, indeed, can possibly 

 have seen the animals themselves in their legitimate 

 habitat. The bibliography of the order, though 

 very extensive, is imperfect and unsatisfactory, 

 widely scattered about in isolated disconnected 

 papers, straggling here and there through half a 

 waggon-load of books altogether out of the reach 

 of ordinary mortals. The Gorgoniadce everywhere 

 inhabit deep water, and abound in the Mediterra- 

 nean, and especially in the warm seas of the West 

 Indies and of the Malabar coast. In our chilly 

 waters they are comparatively scarce ; five species 

 only have been admitted into our catalogue in 

 "Johnston's British Zoophytes," the best mono- 

 gram, probably, on the subject. The right of two 

 of these species to claim our nationality is some- 

 what doubtful ; of the remaining three, one only, 

 6?. verrucosa, is at all common ; the others are more 

 or less rare ; rarer still are the energetic individuals 

 possessed of means and opportunity who take the 

 trouble to go and fish them up alive ; and rarest of 

 all are the specimens which, after having been 

 brought up from the mermaids' gardens, will con- 

 sent to live long enough to allow anybody to observe 

 them thoroughly. The shrivelled, wizened, dried- 

 up mummies brought home by sailors " from furrin 

 parts," and sold by them to the Jews and curiosity- 

 shops, have nearly always lost their natural colours 

 and assumed others ; the fleshy covering has dried 

 up into a friable crust upon the horny stem, and 

 crumbles into dust beneath the fingers ; shrunk 

 and withered, they bear no more resemblance to 

 the living " animal-flowers " than the "Rigwoodie 

 hags" of Tarn O'Shanter to the Queen of Sheba. 

 We have dredged up some of the gayest and 

 brightest of them in the Bay of Bengal ; we have 

 seen them brought up by the pearl-divers in Ceylon, 

 and by the Malay trepang-divers of Singapore. 

 The trepang, or Biche-de-mer, which forms an im- 

 portant article of export from the " Straits Settle- 

 ments " to China, preys upon the fleshy coat of 

 the sea-fans and corals,— at any rate, pieces of 

 the branches are almost invariably found in its 

 stomach. 



In the hope of helping some of our readers to 

 appreciate more truly the specimens in their cabi- 

 nets, and of directing others to higher sources of 

 information, we have attempted to patch together 

 a few scraps and odds and ends of notes respecting 

 them. 



