THE SEA-PENS. 365 
parbs of a quill, from the margin of which are protruded the 
rows of polyps which minister to the support of the common 
body of the compound 
animal. The purple-red 
Pennatula phosphorea, 
which is found in great 
plenty sticking to the baits 
on the fishermen’s lines, 
especially when they use 
muscles to bait their hooks, 
is one of the most singular 
and elegant of the British 
sea-pens. Some authors 
believe that it is capable 
of using its fin-like arms 
like oars, but observations 
are wanting in corrobora- 
tion. The pale orange fawn 
Virgularia mirabilis, an 
allied species, has a more elongated slender form than the 
penuatula. Its rod-like body, from six to ten inches long, is 
furnished with short fin-like lobes of a crescent shape, which 
approach in pairs, but are not strictly oppo- 
site; they are about the eighth of an 
inch asunder, and are furnished along 
the margins with a row of urn-shaped 
polyp-cells. These very delicate and 
brittle animals seem to be confined to a 
small circumscribed part of the cvast, 
which has a considerable depth and a 
muddy bottom, and the fishermen accus-  V"sWene™rebibs. 
tomed to dredge at that place believe from the cleanness 
of the Virgulariz, when brought to the surface, that they 
stand erect at the bottom with one end fixed in the mud 
or clay. 
The Gorgonide (Gorgonia, Primnva, Corallium, Isis, Mopsea) 
mainly differ from the Aleyonide im having an erect and 
branching stem, firmly rooted by its expanded base. A soft 
and fleshy crust, studded with numerous polyps, envelops a 
solid horny or calcareous axis, which serves as a support to the 
Grey Sea-Pen. 
