62 



CORALS AND CORAL LSLANDS. 



reticulation being a result of the coalescence of the branchlets. 

 The general colour of the species was crimson \ but when alive 

 and expanded it was covered throughout with yellowish polyps 



of the form in figure a, though much smaller, the natural size 

 not exceeding a twelfth of an inch. The common sea-fan of 

 the West Indies, Go?^goma fiabellum, is much more finely re- 

 ticulated, the meshes of the net-work being ordinarily not over 



