208 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



are of a fine violet-colour, but when we receive them some 

 are yellow, others white." (Ellis.} 



Its claims to be British are doubtful. 



5. GORGONIA FLABELLUM-VENERIS, Yenus's Tan. 



Hab. Cornwall, Dr. Borlase ; Leith shore, Mr. Mackay ; 

 Lamlash Bay, D. L. 



Though we have mentioned these habitats, we do not 

 believe that it was found, as a British zoophyte, in any of 

 them. When we were in the Isle of Arran it was brought 

 to us as something very rare, that had been dredged in 

 Lamlash Bay. It certainly was a portion of Yenus's fan, 

 but a fragment in which life had long been extinct, and 

 cast overboard, we doubt not, from some vessel from foreign 

 shores, that had found shelter in the bay. The high autho- 

 rity of the late Dr. Neill, so worthy a man and so good a 

 naturalist, led many to suppose that it had been found alive 

 at Leith, but a letter from Professor E. Forbes shows, satis- 

 factorily, how a mistake may have arisen. "Dr. Goodsir 

 has a large specimen of the G.fiabellum-Veneris, dredged 

 in the Forth. The fisherman who brought it described it 

 as being covered with living flesh when taken. On exami- 

 nation we found that it presented the curious appearance of 

 West Indian incrusting shells and British mixed, and the 



