GORGONIA. 205 



As pleased the ear of God ! Original, 

 Unmarx'd, unfaded work of Deity, 

 From age to age enduring and unchanged, 

 Majestical, inimitable, vast. 



Thou bow'dst thy glorious head to none, 

 Heard'st none, to none did honour but to God, 

 Thy Maker, only worthy to receive 

 Thy great obeisance !" Pollok. 



Genus XIX. GORGONIA, Linnaius. 



Gen. Char. Polype-mass rooted, arborescent, consisting of a 

 central axis, barked with a polypiferous crust ; the axis horny, 

 continuous and flexible, branched in coequality with the polype- 

 mass ; the crust, when recent, soft and fleshy, when dried, porous 

 and friable ; the orifices of the polype-cells more or less protube- 

 rant. Dr. Johnston. 



1. GORGONIA VERRUCOSA, Sea-fern, or Sea-fan, Cole. 

 (Plate XII. fig. 42.) 



Hab. Deep water. Mount's Bay, Cornwall, Mr. Batten ; 

 abundant on the south coast, Couch ; plentiful, Devon- 

 shire, Montague ; Exmouth, Rev. T. Hincks. Dr. Fleming 

 states that it was obtained in Scotland by Sowerby. 



This has a shrubby appearance, being above a foot in. 

 height, and sixteen or seventeen inches in breadth. It has 

 by some been called " Sea-heath." It is fixed to rocks by 



