GORGONIA. 211 



the poljpidom was attached to the under only by the limber 

 network, which could not long have withstood the tide, — 

 since they could not splice the broken main-mast, the little 

 artificers did what was about as well-fi.tted to answer their 

 purpose. Ellis states, "I have now before me specimens 

 which prove the horny circles which surround and compose 

 the stem and branches to be the work of animals ; one par- 

 ticularly, of the Keratojphyta, or Sea-fans, called by the cele- 

 brated Linnseus Flahellum Veneris, which, by some accident, 

 has had one of the main stems, belonging to the branches, 

 broke quite across. But the broken parts have been kept 

 near to one another by the small reticulated side-branches. 

 The animals, in the progress of their tubes upwards from 

 the trunk, as soon as they met with this obstruction of the 

 broken stem, turned off to one side, and proceeding along 

 the reticulated branches, covered over the vacant spaces 

 with their horny and calcareous matter ; after this they 

 made a short turn, to gain the broken end of the upper 

 part of the stem of this branch, and from thence they con- 

 tinued their progress along towards the finer ramifications 

 as usual.''' " In the same sea-fan,^' he adds, '^ there is 

 another remarkable instance of the animals forming the 

 horny part of the branches. This specimen appears to have 



