146 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



complete when washed on shore. Any physical injury undergone had not 

 been to the extent of having branches broken off or, in the case of G. iiabel- 

 lum, having suffered any tearing of the blade of the leaf-like portion of the 

 colony. 



On the east side of Loggerhead Key, where the greatest force of the 

 storm came across comparatively shallow water, it being approximately 3 

 miles from the reef mentioned in the previous paragraph, most of the speci- 

 mens when examined in January 191 1 had the spicule-bearing tissues present, 

 although considerably macerated in many instances. None of these colonies 

 showed any considerable amount of injury, such as the loss of branches or 

 the tearing of the living tissues from the skeleton. 



None of the common gorgonians of the Tortugas region can be kept alive 

 for any considerable time after they have been broken oft* from their natural 

 support and allowed to fall over into a horizontal position. When such a 

 colony is put into a live-car, where most of the other local marine inverte- 

 brates and practically all of the sedentary coelenterates can be kept alive for 

 an indefinite period, it will be only 2 or 3 days before maceration sets in. 



It seems apparent, therefore, that the greatest destruction resulting from 

 hurricanes comes from the tearing of the gorgonian colonies from their 

 natural supports, rather than from any lacerations of the tissues of the 

 colony. 



On the reef where the regeneration experiments previously mentioned 

 were being carried on, a considerable number of colonies were carried away 

 during the storm. Of the remaining colonies many were found in January 

 191 1 which had suffered lacerations of noticeable extent. The most common 

 injury observed was a destruction of the living tissues of the colony, such as 

 would result from twisting such a specimen in one's hands while holding it 

 firmly by each end. The loss of branches in the branched forms, or the tearing 

 of the skeleton of the leaf-like portion of G. flabellum, was of very unusual 

 occurrence. The injuries caused by the twisting from the waves were quite 

 evenly distributed among the several species occurring on this reef. Such 

 injuries often involved as much as half of the total surface area of the 

 colony. In all large colonies of whatever species the injury was greatest 

 over the basal portion, while the outer ends or branches were usually unin- 

 jured. At the time of the examination in January 1911 there had been com- 

 paratively little ingrowth of new tissue over the denuded areas, so that the 

 extent of the injury to any colony could be readily determined. When the 

 same specimens were examined in July 191 1, in at least 50 per cent* of the 

 specimens noted as injured at the time of the earlier observation, the repara- 

 tion had been so complete that there was no longer any evidence of injury. 



In all of the colonies where the injury consisted in the removal of the 

 living tissues from about the base of the skeleton there was yet an area 

 where the skeleton was exposed. In all cases where the injury was of this 

 nature there was no evidence of any growth of the living tissues down over 

 the naked skeleton. The exposed skeleton was usually covered with a dense 

 growth of algae, bryozoans, or hydroids, so that there seems to be no proba- 

 bility that it will be again covered with the usual tissues. The specimens of 

 G. acerosa known to have been injured during the storm showed the same 

 overgrowth of the denuded skeleton by the ccenenchyma, on which the 

 polyps later made their appearance, as did those colonies from which the 

 living tissues were removed in the regeneration experiments. 



* The examination in January 191 1, was so hasty and incomplete that no reliable 

 estimate of the number showing injuries could be made. 



