ALCYONOID POLYPS. 85 
phyte, with its lilac or purple polyps fully exparided, looks 
much like a large cluster of flowers from a lilac bush. The 
tubes are united by cross plates at intervals. 
2. Gorgonia tribe, or Gorconacea.—The following figure 
represents a species of this tribe from the Kingsmill or Gilbert 

GORGONIA FLEXUOSA, D. 
Islands. It is one of the net-like or reticulated species, the 
reticulation being a result of the coalescence of the branchlets. 
The general color 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, Gorgonia flabellum, is much more finely 
reticulated, the meshes of the net-work being ordinarily not 
over a fourth of an inch in breadth; while the fan often grows 
to a height and breadth of a yard. 
Other species of the Gorgonia family are like clusters 
