CHAPTER \l 



ANTIPATHARIAN CORALS 



" La principale difference que Ton observe entre les Antipates et 

 les Gorgones, consiste dans la nature de I'ecorce ; ces dernieres 

 I'offrent plus ou moins cretacee, friable et presque terreuse par la 

 dessication, tandis que dans les premiers, elle est d'une consistance 

 presque semblable a une substance gommeuse dessechee." — ■ 

 Lamouroux, Polypiers coralligeves flexibles, p. 368. 



The group of the Antipatharia exhibits the same character 

 as that of the family Gorgoniidae of the Alcyonaria in form- 

 ing a hard, horny axial support which is not impregnated 

 with calcareous matter. The Antipatharia, like the flexible 

 Alcyonarian corals, also show a great variety in the form and 

 method of branching. Some have a long straight or spirally 

 twisted unbranched stem ; some branch in all directions like 

 a shrub, others in one plane to form a fan-shaped structure. 

 In some the branches anastomose to form a network, in 

 others they do not. It is not, therefore, possible to dis- 

 tinguish with certainty the axis of an Antipathes from the 

 axis of a Gorgoniid either by its chemical composition or by 

 its mode of growth. 



The horny axis of the Antipatharian corals, however, can 

 usually be recognised when the finer terminal branches are 

 examined with a lens, because they are provided with a 

 number of sharp, thorn-like processes which give them a 

 rough or prickly surface (Fig. 64), and on this account they 

 were called by the older writers the Prickle corals (Stachel- 

 korallen). It is on the arrangement of these thorns on the 

 branches that the classification of the Antipatharia into 

 genera and species largely depends. The main stem and 



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