394 
teresting specimen of this hitherto very limited genus to the So- 
ciety. 
Coratuium sounsoni. (Pl. XVIII.) 
Coral branched, subflabelliform. Branches nearly simple, sub- 
parallel, flexuose, with a few very short ascending branchlets scat- 
tered on the side of the upper surface. Bark yellow, granular, with 
three or four rows of rather convex polype-cells on the upper surface 
of the branches, and with the under side smooth and rounded. The 
axis white, striated. 
Hab. Madeira. 
This coral differs from the Red Coral of the Mediteranean and 
of commerce in several important particulars. That coral, which 
generally grows from the under-surface of ledges of rocks in a pen- 
dent position, has the polypes equally scattered on all sides of its 
branches, and thus the animal can obtain food with equal facility on 
all sides of the coral. 
The Madeiran coral, on the contrary, seems to grow in a fan-like 
mannet, spreading out horizontally from the rock or other marine 
body to which it is attached ; and it has the animal placed on each 
side of the upper surface of the stem and branches, as though the 
animal could only obtain nourishment on that part of the coral which 
is exposed to the light, or at least is parallel with the surface of the 
sea. 
This is the case with many, indeed I may say with all the corals 
which grow in this expanded, fan-like manner. 
There is a species of coral which grows, and has the animal like- 
wise distributed in the same manner, which is found in the seas near 
the Sandwich Islands, and has hence been called Corallium secun- 
dum by Mr. Dana, but it is very different from the species here de- 
scribed. The Madeiran coral is easily distinguished from that de- 
scribed by Mr. Dana by the colour of its bark and axes, and the thick, 
elongated, subsimple, subparallel branches. 
Secondly, this Madeiran coral appears to be normally of a white 
colour, while the Mediterranean coral is of a bright crimson-red, and 
has hence been called Corallium rubrum. ‘The latter is sometimes 
bleached white, or becomes so from some defect or malady in the 
animal: it is rarely found naturally white, or more generally with 
some portion of the coral white. I have never seen it naturally of 
this colour, but I have seen some specimens with white portions ; and 
I have been informed that these portions have been bleached by the 
sudden application of heat or some other process. The Madeiran 
coral, on the contrary, seems to be always white. 
The ‘‘ White Coral” of commerce is a species of Caryophyllia 
of Lamarck. 
If this coral could be obtained in any quantity from Madeira, it 
would be a beautiful object for jewellers, and I have no doubt fetch 
a good price. 
