THE EIGHT-RAYED POLYPS 



3485 



THREE MOUTHS WITH 

 TENTACLES AND 

 DIVIDING WALLS 

 OF BRAIN CORAL. 



with rows of mouths, 

 belonging to the 

 polyps, which have 

 budded off from one 

 another. The valleys 

 are bounded on each 

 side by the hard 

 walls separating 

 them from similar 

 valleys containing 

 similar series of 

 polyps. The three 

 illustrations will en- 

 able the reader to 

 understand this brief 

 description. 



We have hitherto described skeletonless forms, and forms secreting 

 solid, stony skeletons; the Antipatharia have horny skeletons, the 

 method of secreting which will be described when we come to the horny skeletons of 

 the next group. The polyps have only one, instead of several rows of tentacles, 

 and in most of them the tentacles are six in number. They form compound stocks, 

 looking like delicate shrubs, with long branches, from which the polyps project, 

 these branches being supported by a flexible horny axis. In the Fiji islands a 

 stock three feet high, with a stem half an inch in thickness, has been found. The 

 general form of the whole stock, the brown coloring, and the small, thick tentacles 

 of the little polyps are not attractive. 



A HORNY CORAL, Antipathes arborea. 

 (Natural size.) 



THE EIGHT-RAYED POLYPS Order OCTACTINIA 



Although this second order of the corals contains a variety of forms, the 

 appearance of the individual animals is more or less uniform, the number of 

 tentacles being always eight. The tentacles are not hollow, but are usually some- 

 what flattened and notched round the edges like delicate leaves. These corals 



