162 



THE OCEAN WOELD. 



In Madrepora palmata, vulgarly named Neptune's Car, we have 

 a large and beautiful species, whose expanding branches are flat, round 

 at the base, and forming in lobes, whose length is often as much 





j^iiiijfiji 



BPiiili, 



Fig. 11. Madrepora plantaginea (Lamarck). 



as three feet high, with a breadth of twenty inches, and a thickness 

 of two to two and a half : this fine madrepore is found in the Caribbean 

 Sea and among the Antilles. 



POEITES. 



The Porites are madrepores produced by a pitcher-shaped fleshy 

 animal, with twelve short tentacula ; the cells are unequally polygonal, 

 imperfectly defined, slightly radiating by thread-like pointed rays, 

 with prickles placed at intervals. The polypus is polymorphous or 

 many-formed, composed of a reticulated and porous tissue, the indi- 

 viduals forming it being always completely united together. Exter- 



