GORGONIA. 209 



living flesh was doubtless a British sponge which had grown 

 round the branches in many parts." 



If we must give up this magnificent Gorgonia as British, 

 it is a consolation that it will continue to be more familiar 

 to us than any of acknowledged British growth. It is so 

 strikingly curious and handsome that it attracts the notice 

 of our sailors, who are not in general remarkably prone to 

 admire the works of nature ; but this stares them so broadly 

 in the face that they are constrained to observe it, and they 

 often bring it home as a present to their friends, scarcely 

 one of them knowing that it is an animal production, but 

 regarding it is an extraordinary kind of seaweed. Since I 

 began to write this, I have had a very pretty specimen of it 

 brought to me by a little girl, and I had two or three from 

 my kind nautical friends before. 



The wisdom of God, as our great British naturalist, Ray, 

 has observed, is shown in the fan-like form which many 

 marine plants and zoophytes are taught to assume. In the 

 present case the safety of the polypidom is promoted, not 

 only by the thin edge being fitted to cleave the waves, but 

 even when the broad side happens to be exposed to the im- 

 pulse, the waves pass through without doing it much injury, 

 the inosculations of the branches causing it to resemble net- 



