154 ZOOPHYTES. 



simple in form than those of the preceding species. The disk has a 

 rich purplish-brown colour, and the mouth is bright green, with the 

 interior vermilion. 



FAMILY II. A 



Animalia multitentaculata. Tentacula margine discorum disposita. 

 Disci aut simplices, aut seriatim gemmantes et lineis confluentes. 

 Coralla calcarea, cellis radiatis excavatis, lamellis, corallis aggregatis, 

 ex uno ad alium centrum non productis, sed media septi scepius inter- 

 ruptis, itaque stellis circumscriptis. 



Animals with numerous tentacles arranged along the margin of the 

 disks, and covered by the same on contraction. The disks either 

 simple, or budding in lines and long-confluent. Coralla calcareous, 

 with concave radiate cells ; lamellae, in aggregate species, not con- 

 tinuous from one centre to another, but generally interrupted half- 

 way; the stars, therefore, circumscribed. 



The Astraeidae are various in their forms and modes of growth. 

 The massive species assume hemispherical shapes, rarely nodular, 

 with the surface of the coralla, in some cases, pitted with concave 

 stellate cells (Astraeae), and, in others, marked with meandering chan- 

 nels and ridges (Meandrinse, some Mussae, Ctenophylliae, and some 

 Manicinse) ; in the former, each cell is covered, when alive, with a 

 polyp-flower ; and, in the latter, the confluent disks and tentacles of a 

 series of polyps occupy the channels. In a few species, the cells are 

 confluent also across the ridges (Monticulariae), and, consequently, 

 instead of ridges, conical prominences cover the surface, which have 

 a stellated structure from the lamellae that meet and constitute them 

 77). 



In many of the Astraeidaa, the several calicles form distinct branches 

 ($ 79) (Euphylliae, Mussae, Manicinse, Caulastreeae); and in these, the 



