GORGONIA VERTICELLATA. 103 



employed ia the construction of small objects requir- 

 ing a 8ubstance at once hard and elastic. 



Gorgons live, like other marine polyps, at the 

 bottom of the sea, or upon marine bodies to which 

 they attach themselves. As is the case with the 

 coral and the antipathidaj, a great number of indi- 

 viduals live upon the same polypier. The body is 

 retractile. Generally, it is small ; and, for many 

 species, a magnifying-glass is necessary to distinguish 

 clearly the animal from the living fleshy crust which 

 surrounds the polypier. 



The portion of the fan-gorgon represented in fig. 

 35, shows the polypi in the iurm of small round 

 tubercles with a hollow in their centre. The i)olypi 

 are still more appart'ut in the whorled gorgon (Gov- 

 gonia verticdlata). This species has been so named 

 because the polyps are grouped at different points of 

 the stalk, and form at iQ.vh of those points a whorl of 

 animals all round the branch.* 



The gorgonidse display the most beautiful colours 

 in the sea, but their hues fade soon after they have 

 been taken from the water, and retain only the pale 

 sliadows of white, black, red, gn en, violet or yellow, 

 s ich as we see in the collections. 



* The word vert'cellated is c ra[)loyed by botanists to desi;;tinte the 

 grouping of leaves which gri.w at the same heigl.t upon a bninc.i 

 around which they frni a ^o^t of crown. — Tr. 



n 



