SUBORDER AI.CYONARIA. 599 



FAMILY II. ALCYONIDJE. 



Akyonuria affixa, carnosa, penitus scepe calcareo-spicuttgera. 



Attached Alcyonaria, fleshy, often containing disseminated calcareous 

 spicula. 



The Alcyonida? are fleshy zoophytes, and grow in clumps of short 

 branches, or broad plates, spreading over the rocks. When alive, 

 the whole is a mass of flowers, with fringed petals ; but they are no 

 sooner touched than the blossoms disappear, and nothing remains but 

 clusters of pale grayish branches, "dead men's fingers" as one spe- 

 cies has been significantly called. Some species, of rich colours, form 

 long pendant clusters in the coral grottoes. Though a retraction and 

 disappearance of the polyp-flowers usually take place when disturbed, 

 there are a few species in which this is not the case. 



The scattered granules of lime are so abundant in many species as 

 to give considerable firmness to the zoophyte, and the natives of the 

 South Sea Islands often use them in place of sand-paper for polish- 

 ing their war-clubs. 



These zoophytes abound in the tropics, and some species are found 

 in the seas of Northern Europe. 



This family includes the following subfamilies and genera : 



SUBFAMILY I. XENINJJ. Texture carnose. Polyps not retractile. 



G. 1. Rhizozenia. Polyps attached in lines which are often reticulate. 



G. 2. Anthelia. Forming spreading plates. 



G. 3. Xenia. Forming thick lobed or subramose masses. 



SUBFAMILY II. ALCYONIN.E. Texture carnose. Polyps partly or wholly retractile. 



1 . Polyps semi-retractile, leaving u-art-like prominences or verruca. 

 G. 4. Ammothea. Ramose or fruticulose, verruca? unarmed. 



G. 5. Sympodium. Effuse, not stipitate, verrucoc unarmed. 

 G. 6. Nephthya. Verrucsc armed with calcareous spicula. 



2. Polyps wholly retractile. 



G. 7. Alcyonium. Lobed or branched ; fringe of tentacles short. 



SDBFAMILY III. SPOGGODIN.E. Texture membranous, and very open cellular within ; 



polyps minute, not retractile, in clusters of calcareous spicula. 

 G. 8. Spoggodia. 



