640 ZOOPHYTES. 



GENUS I. CORALLIUM. 



Polyporum cortice carnosa axem lapideum tegente. 

 Stony axis covered with a fleshy polyp-crust. 



1. CORALLIUM NOBILE. 



C. dichotome laxeque ramosa, ramis Jtexuosis, inter dum coalitis ; polypis 

 undique sparsis, disco tentaculisque albis ; axe rubro, raro albo. 



Dichotomously and lax ramose ; branches flexuous, sometimes coales- 

 cent ; polyps every where scattered ; disk and tentacles white; axis 

 red, rarely white. 



Mediterranean Sea. 



This species, the precious or noble coral of commerce, grows some- 

 times to a foot in height, with a thickness at base of an inch. It 

 occurs at different depths, from fifteen to one hundred and thirty 

 fathoms, but according to Risso, the best is obtained at a depth of 

 about twenty-four fathoms. The polyps were first observed and 

 figured by Marsilli, who has given in his Physique de la Mer, an 

 elaborate account of the modes then used for fishing up the coral. He 

 called the polyps the flowers of the cwal, and considered them full 

 proof of its vegetable nature. 



Marsilli, Physique de la Mer (1725), Gorgonia nobilis, Ellis and Solander, 90, 



plate 40, fig. 180, represents the polyps tab. 13. 



or " Icsfleurs du corait" as Marsilli con- CoraUium rubrum, Cavolini, 32, pi. 2. 



sidered them. , Lamk., ii. 470. 



Peyssonncl, Phil. Trans., 1753 ; an ab- , Lamouroux, Polyp, flex., 456 ; Exp. 



stract of a Memoir in which this au- Meth. des Polyp., 37, pi. 13, figs. 3-4. 



thor described the animals of the Coral- , Risso, Mcrid. Europe, vol. v. 



lium. , Schweig., Handb., 434. 



Seba, Thes., iii. 210, tab. 115, figs. 1-7. , Blainv., Man. d'Actin., 502, pi. 86, 



Tournefort, Inst., tab., 339. fig. 2. 



Coralli/s ruler, Donati, Storia Nat., 43 ; CoraUium Mobile, Ehrenb., op. cit., Gen. 



and Phil. Trans. Abridg., x. 154, with Ixxvi., sp. 1. 



figures of the polyps on pi. 4. Isis (subgenus CoraUium) nobilis, Rcgne 



Isis nobilis, Linn., Syst. Nat., ed. xii., p. Anim., Paris, 1837, Zoophytes, pi., 80; 



1288. g' v ' n g views and dissections of the polyps, 

 , Espcr, Pflanz. i. 49, tab. 7, 8. by Milne Edwards. 



