230 CLASS III.— ORDER IIL 



from the stony, and it is always smaller ; but in the se- 

 cond, the name of stony articulation is no longer appli- 

 cable ; it is no more than a spongy knot, larger than 

 the stony articulation, and often so confounded with 

 it, that it becomes difficult to distinguish the limits 

 that separate them. This character has induced me 

 to place the Melitea immediately after the Coral ; for 

 it appears as if Nature in these Polypidoms was be- 

 ginning a new order, in forming an axe, or articulated 

 skeleton, instead of the stiff continued one of the 

 Gorgonias. 



The cells, or rather the polypi of the Melitea, vary 

 in their form and situation ; they are either superficial 

 or tuberculous, either dispersed or only on the sides ; 

 there are some whose border and interior, of a car- 

 mine red, blend most agreeably with the lively and 

 brilliant citron colour of the rind. 



The colour is pretty uniform in all the Melitea s; 

 it is a red passing through all the shades from the 

 lightest rose to the deepest purple, and which some- 

 times changes to a more or less brilliant yellow. The 

 polypi are red when the Meliteas have a yellow rind, 

 and yellow when the rind is red. Most of them 

 originate in the equatorial seas. 



OCHREOUS. 



1. Melitea ochracea. Horny articulations, pro- 

 jecting and spongy ; the stony ones unequal in length, 

 smooth in the small branches, furrowed in the greater. 



Indian seas. 



RISSO'S. 



2. Melitea Rissoi, Branches diverging^ and ana- 



