THE ANNALS 
AND 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
[THIRD SERIES. | 
No. 82. OCTOBER 1864. 
XXVI.—On the Antipatharian Genus Gerardia. 
By M. Lacaze-Duruizrs*. 
THE animals producing the polyparies to which Lamarck gave 
the names of Gorgonia tuberculata and Antipathes glaberrima, 
and for which Dr. Gray established the genus Lezopathes, have 
hitherto been unknown. The object of the researches which I 
now submit to the Academy of Sciences is the filling up of this 
gap in our knowledge, the definition of a new genus, and the 
precise determination of the objects described by the authors 
under the names which have just been cited. 
M. Valenciennes having done me the honour of handing over 
to me the revision of the collection of Antipathes belonging to 
the museum, | have ascertained, by the examination of the 
tickets written by Lamarck himself, that this illustrious natu- 
ralist gave the name of Antipathes glaberrima to the denuded 
polypary of the same species that he called Gorgonia tuberculata 
when it bore the animal layer; that Dr. Gray created the genus 
Letopathes for Antipathes glaberrima, Esper ; and lastly, that 
Jules Haime has described this same species under the name of 
Letopathes Lamarcki. On the other hand, I easily perceived that 
if Lamarck had distinguished by two different names one and 
the same thing in different states of preservation, he had, on the 
other hand, confounded two different things under the name of 
Antipathes glaberrima. 
Without mentioning the names of Zoanthus and Palythoa, 
given in collections to specimens of Gorgonia tuberculata, Lamk., 
preserved in spirit and having their polypes expanded, it is easy 
to prove that great confusion exists with regard to these objects. 
However, it is just to add that this confusion is the necessary 
consequence of having for examination only specimens in various 
_  * Translated from the Comptes Rendus, July 11, 1864, p. 861. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xiv. 16 
