TRIBE I. ASTRJEACEA. 283 



The clumps are much branched and crowded, sometimes sixteen 

 inches high. The branches are very uneven and rough, with unequal 

 swelling echinate calicles. The texture of the corallum is very solid, 

 with scarcely a cellule. The cell in a transverse section is seen to be 

 more than a sixth of an inch deep, with a breadth little less than an 

 eighth. 



FAMILY III. FUNGIBLE. 



Astrceacea animalibus depressis, aut simplicissimis aut aggregato-gem- 

 matis ; discis non circumscriptis, et undique, zoophytis aggregatis, 

 omninoque confluentibus, inter stitiis nullis; tentaculis brevibus, spar sis, 

 interdum obsoktis, contractis non tectis. Corolla cettis veris nullis ; 

 superficie lametto-striatd, et scepius stellata, stettis non circum- 

 scriptis ; corattorum aggregator-urn lamellis ex uno centro ad alterum 

 productis. 



Astraeacea having depressed animals, either quite simple, or aggregato- 

 gemmate; disks without circumscribed limits, and in aggregate 

 species, all every way confluent, without interstices; tentacles short, 

 scattered, sometimes obsolete, and when contracted, not covered. 

 Coralla without true cells ; surface lamello-striate, and usually stel- 

 lately so, stars not circumscribed ; in aggregate coralla, the lamellae 

 extending uninterruptedly from centre to centre. 



The nature of the Fungidse, and their relations to the other Astree- 

 acea, are explained in JJ 43, 46, 78. Their forms are among the most 

 remarkable which corals present. The free or unattached species, 

 when simple, are circular or elliptical disks, or conical caps, made up 

 of radiating lamellae ; other compound species assume the shape of 

 long narrow troughs inverted, rude caps, dishes, or cups ; while the 

 attached Fungidae grow sometimes in simple leaves, to the side of 

 other coral rocks, like a lichen against a dead stump, or in hemisphe- 

 rical clusters of leaves, or as vases, or massive columns. Calicularly 

 branched species never occur in this family, on account of the absence 



