ANTIPATHARIAN CORALS 139 



To illustrate the general character of the group, reference 

 may be made to two or three forms in which the task of 

 identification is a comparatively simple one. 



Antipathcs (Parantipathes) lan'x is a species which has 

 been found in deep water in the Mediterranean Sea, off the 

 Faroe Islands, off the west coast of Ireland, in the Bay of 

 Biscay, and also in the Sulu Sea in the Malay Archipelago. 



It has a very characteristic method of branching, which 

 has been compared with a twig of a larch tree but is more 

 expressively termed " bottle-brush form." 



In many specimens there is a central main unbranched 

 stem attached to a stone from which spring five or six 

 longitudinal rows of numerous long delicate branches, 

 usually called the pinnules. The pinnules stand out at 

 right angles to the main stem, and as they are of approxi- 



P"iG. 64. — Autipathi's lari.x. A part ot the horny axis of a branch showing the 

 characteristic rows of thorns. 20 diaras. 



mately equal length they have the same kind of appearance 

 as the bristles on a bottle-brush. 



The polyps are arranged in a single row on the upper 

 side of these pinnules, and it is not difficult to see in well- 

 preserved specimens from Naples (Fig. 63) that each polyp 

 possesses six tentacles, and that each tentacle bears a 

 number of dome-shaped tubercles which are armed with 

 stinging cells (nematocysts). There is, strictly speaking, no 

 coenenchym, as the row of polyps is continuous, and each 

 polyp communicates directly with its neighbours. 



Unbranched specimens over one foot in height were 

 found in 412 fathoms of water by the Huxley Expedition in 

 the Bay of Biscay,^ and a fine specimen, over three feet in 

 height, with more than half a dozen strong branches bearing 

 the pinnules, has been described by Professor Thomson ^ 

 from the Faroes. 



^ S. J. Hickson, Journ. Mar. Biol. Assoc, viii., 1907. 

 ^ J. A. Thomson, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. xvii. 5, 1908. 



VJ 



