158 



THE OCEAN WOELD. 



pressed, and oval, with mouth superior and transverse, in a large disk, 

 which is covered by many thick cirrhiform tentacula ; the polypidom 

 is rendered solid internally by a calcareous solid deposit of a simple 

 figure, having a star of radiating, acutely-pointed lamellae above, and 

 simple rays, full of wrinkles, beneath. There are nine species, mostly 

 natives of the Indian Seas, which De Blainville arranges in three 



.big. 73. .b'ungia agai icitoruiis (Lamarck). 



groups, according as they are simple and circular, simple and compressed, 

 or complex and oblong. In Fungia echinata, represented in Fig. 72, 

 we have a species which inhabits the Indian and Chinese Seas. It 

 belongs to the last group, being oblong in form, convex above, and 

 concave below. The hollow, from which the lamellae or chamber- walls 

 proceed, are of considerable length ; the toothed partitions are very 

 irregular, thin and prickly, resting upon their lower edge, in order to 

 leave the concave portion of the field free to a host of excrescences, 

 resembling the roof of a grotto studded with small stalactites. 



The conformation of the softer parts of this polypus has been 





