CRITICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



Our knowledge of the Sclerobasic or Black Corals may be said to date from the 

 publication of the Elenchus Zoophytorum of Pallas in 1776, previous authors, including 

 Linnaeus, not having recognised their essential difference from the Gorgonidae. Several 

 species were already known and figured in the works of Rumphius, Seba, Marsigli, and 

 others, but these, with the exception of two or perhaps three, first received a place in the 

 binomial system at the hands of Pallas. Two forms are included in the 10th edition 

 of the Systema naturae under the genus Gorgonia, viz., Gorgonia abies, Linnasus, and 

 Gorgonia spiralis, Linnaeus, whilst Gorgonia senea, Linnaeus, is perhaps synonymous with 

 the former species. 



The work of Pallas is remarkable for its clearness and precision; in it we first find clearly 

 stated those characters which still are of ordinal value amongst the Antipathidae. It is 

 true that the chief characters of his new genus Antipatlies, new rather by definition 

 than in name, rested on points of skeletal structure, and little was known at that time, 

 nor indeed until quite recently, about the structure and organisation of the polyps. 

 Nevertheless the words of Pallas — " Stirps cornea; extus scabra, attenuata; cortice 

 gelatinoso," define the Antipathidae as clearly to-day as they did a century ago, and 

 separate them from all other known Zoantharia. This is all the more remarkable when it 

 is remembered how much the horny skeleton of Hydroids and Actinozoa is subject 

 to variations within limited groups; how even species of the same genus may 

 differ in this respect. Yet with regard to the Antipathidae the structure of the 

 skeleton alone is sufficient to separate them from other forms. Had subsequent investi- 

 gators been more careful in following the characters laid down by Pallas, much confusion 

 and error might have been avoided. The possession of a spinose horny axis has proved 

 to be such an essential character of all Antipathidae, that those which have been described 

 as smooth have either been erroneously so described, or do not belong to the family at 

 all. 



At a time when nothing was known of the structure of the polyps, it was only 

 natural that the species of Antipathes should be regarded as closely allied to Gorgonia, 

 to which indeed their dendritic sclerobasic axis seems very closely allied. The similarity 



