GORGONIAD.E. 377 



of pipes or tubes, are formed. When the animals are alive, 

 each tube contains a polype of a beautiful bright-green 

 colour, and the upper part of the surface is covered with 

 a gelatinous mass, formed by a confluence of the polypes. 

 This species occurs in great abundance on the coasts of 

 New South Wales, of the Eed Sea, and of the Molucca 

 Islands, varying in colour from a bright red to a deep 

 orange. It grows in large hemispherical masses, from one 

 to two feet in circumference, which first appear as small 

 specks adhering to a shell or rock ; as they increase, the 

 tubes resemble a group of diverging rays, and at length 

 other tubes are produced on the transverse plates ; thus 

 filling up the intervals, and constituting one uniform 

 tubular mass ; the surface being covered with a green 

 fleshy substance beset with stellar polypes. 



GORGONIAIWE. This family is named after the three cele- 

 brated sisters, daughters of Phorcus and Ceto, who turned 

 to stone all on whom they fixed their eyes, and one of 

 whom had her hair turned into serpents. The species grow 

 to a large size, rising to a foot or more in height, and being 

 from fifteen to sixteen inches in width : they are flexible, and 

 seem like plants growing to the rocks to which they are 

 fixed. Some are branching, covered with lace-like work ; 

 others like a feather or fan ; while some, again, are straight, 

 and others of a drooping form. The stems flat, angular, or 

 round, of a dark colour, with an outer crust of a soft sub- 

 stance full of pores, out of which the polypes thrust them- 

 selves. The flesh, when dry, is earthy and friable, a con- 

 siderable proportion of carbonate of lime enters into its 

 composition; but in a recent state it is soft and fleshy, 

 and excavated by numerous cells for the lodgment of the 

 polypes. When a portion of a branch is macerated in a 

 weak acid, the lime is entirely removed ; but the branch 

 retains its original size and figure, and shows the frame- 

 work to be an irregular close texture of corneous fibres, 

 the interstices of which had been probably filled with 

 a gelatinous fluid. 



Gorgonia flabellum, sometimes called Fldbellum Ve- 

 neris, " Venus' s fan," may often be seen of the height 

 of five feet. It grows in the form of a net, with its 

 branches compressed inwardly ; the flesh is yellow, some- 



