CHAPTER V 



ALCYONARIAN CORALS 



" Qui navigavere in Indos Alexandri milites frondem marinarum 

 arborum tradidere in aqua viridem fuisse, exemptam sole protinus 

 in salem arescentem, iuncos quoque lapideos perquam similes veris 

 per littora." — Pliny, N'at. Hist. xiii. cap. 51. 



The large group of marine organisms known as the Alcyo- 

 naria has received its ordinal name from a common spongy 

 zoophyte called Alcyonium which is found in shallow water 

 and sometimes above low-water mark on the British and 

 other European coasts. 



Lumps of dead Alcyonium, with their four or five lobate 

 processes, which have been washed ashore, have a very rough 

 resemblance to a human hand with swollen and distorted 

 fingers, and on this account the British species was given 

 by Ellis the name Alcyonium manits marina, and is known 

 in popular works on natural history as " Dead Men's 

 fingers." 



But we are not concerned in this book with Alcyonium, 

 for although it does secrete calcareous spicules to support 

 its structure it is relatively soft or spongy in texture and 

 could not be brought within the scope of any recognised 

 definition of the word coral. 



However, Alcyonium is closely related to many other 

 marine zoophytes which do form a hard continuous skeletal 

 structure which have been and still are called " corals " ; 

 in fact, the well-known precious coral of commerce, the 

 first of all others in history to receive the name coral, is a 

 member of the group. As the Alcyonaria form a very 

 well-defined Order of the Animal Kingdom, notwithstanding 



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