298 POLYZOA INFUNDIBULATA. 



Polypidom attached by a spreading base, calcareous, erect, from 

 half an inch to an inch high, much compressed, divided in a palmate 

 manner, the segments truncate, the surface very rough vt'ith the 

 mucronate cells, which are immersed, arranged in regular rows, and 

 have a roundish aperture guarded by a strong divaricate mucro, and 

 in some of the cells there are one or two shorter spines at the base of 

 this. From these spines being worn away the base of the polypidom 

 is generally smooth and more or less rounded : it is sometimes of a 

 yellowish-brown colour, but commonly white, and when dry appears 

 " as if covered over with a silver varnish." 



Notwithstanding the apparent dissimilarity in habit of the three 

 preceding Celleporse, I cannot but suspect that they are merely dif- 

 ferent states of the same species : for in these productions the " fronti 

 nulla fides" receives many an apposite illustration. 



4. C. cERvicoRNis, much and irregularly hra.ncJied ; branches 

 compressed^ palmate, truncate ; surface roughish or eveti, com- 

 pact, with simple circular pores disposed in quincunx, Bor- 

 lase.* 



Plate LIII. 



Porus cervinus, Borl. Cornw. 240, tab. 24, fig. 7. — Millepora cervicornis, Stew. Elem. 

 ii. 427. Tu)-t. Brit. Faun. 204. — M. compressa, Soiverby Brit. Misc. 83, pi. 41. 

 Turt. Brit. Faun. 204. Jameson in Wem. Mem, i. 560. — Cellepora cervicornis, 

 Flem. Brit. Anim. 532. Thompson in Ann. Nat. Hist. v. 253. Couch Zooph. 

 Comw. 49 : Corn. Faun, iii, 111, pi. 20, fig. 1. 



Hab. — " In deep water, not rare," Fleming. Cornwall, Borlase. 

 Devonshire, Dr. Coldstream. Shetland Islands, Jameson. Ob- 

 tained in abundance from the Nymph Bank by R. Ball, Esq. Fife- 

 shire coast, rare, J. Goodsir. Roundstone Bay ; off the Gobbins, 

 CO. Antrim, W. M'Calla. 



A single specimen of this coral is about three inches in height and 

 somewhat more in breadth. It rises from a broad flattened base, 

 and begins immediately to expand and divide into kneed branches 

 or broad segments, many of which anastomose so as to form arches 

 and imperfect circles. The extreme segments are dilated and 

 variously cut, truncate. Both sides are perforated with numerous 



* Borlase, William, of Ludgvan in Cornwall, D. D., born Feb. 2, 1695-6 ; elected 

 F. R. S. in 1750 ; died Aug. 31, 1772: the author of a History of Cornwall still 

 held in estimation ; and characterized by his contemporaries as an " able and worthy 

 man." See Pennant's Literary Life, p. 1. 



