EASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. r. 



: > 



Family Cornularin.e Ehrenberg. 



Cornvlaridw. Dana, Zoophytes. Cormdarincc and Telestince Milne-Edwards, CoralHaires. 

 Xeniadce {pars) Gray, Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist, 1859, p. 443. 



Corallum tubular, membranous or coriaceous, increasing by buds arising either from 

 creeping stolons or from the sides of erect branches. Tentacles with well-developed lobes 

 in a single marginal row on each side. 



In this group I have united the creeping genera, wbich form the sub-family Cornuhrince 

 of Milne-Edwards, with the genus Telesto, characterized by its lateral buds and arborescent 

 form. That this is in accordance with their natural affinities is evident from the fact that 

 in two species of Telesto I have constantly found small creeping stolons, with rising buds 

 as in C'irnuluria, proceeding from the bases of the larger upright branches, and even in 

 the following species this seems to be the case while young, for the upright stalks forming 

 the clumps are connected together by creeping stolons at the base. The genus Coelogorgia 

 Val. also belongs here, instead of among the Gorgorddce, where it has hitherto been placed. 



Genus Telesto Lamouroux. 



Corallum tubular, arborescent, increasing by lateral buds from upright branches, and some- 

 times, also, by basal stolons ; walls thin, firm, membranous or like parchment, with eight 

 longitudinal sulcations. Polyps wholly retractile, separated at the base from the cavity of 

 the branch by a thin membrane. 



This genus differs from Cornularia and its allies in its upright growth and arborescent 

 form ; from Coelogorgia, to which it is otherwise closely allied, in its thin, parchment-like 

 walls, while in the latter they are thickened, coriaceous, and spiculose. 



Telesto frutieulosa Dana. 



Telesto fndicuhsa Dana, Zoophytes, p. 632 (1846) ; Milne-Edwards, CoralHaires, vol. i. p. 112 (1857). 



This is a ca?spitose, much branched, fastigiate species. Several stalks, connected at the 

 base by creeping stolons, arise close together, giving off from their sides numerous simple 

 tubes and other branchlets, which again subdivide into two, three, or more. The large 

 branches as well as the branchlets or polyp cells are tubular, with their walls nearly 

 smooth externally, but incrusted throughout by a dark colored parasitic sponge, which also 

 extends over and around the base, and often forms a tubular prolongation at the ends of 

 the polyp cells. The exterior surface of the branchlets is marked by eight distinct sul- 

 cations. A specimen in the Museum of Comparative Zoology consists of about twelve 

 crowded, erect stalks, four inches high, the cells averaging about .25 inch in length, .08 in 

 diameter. Another larger specimen forms a closely branched clump seven inches high and 

 five in diameter. This is attached to the dead axis of Leptogorgia virgulata, which it incrusts 

 for several inches, rising above the broken end in the form of a panicle. The tubes are 

 orange-yellow when free from the investing sponge. 



Charleston, S. C. (L. Agassiz) ; Stono Inlet (J. W. Page, U. S. A.). 



MEMOIRS DOST. SOO. NAT. HIST. Vol. 1. 2 



