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FAMILY IV.— OCULINAD^E. 



The corallum in this family is solid (not porous), com- 

 pound, increasing by gemmation so as to take a form more 

 or less branching and tree-like. The stony tissue is very 

 compact, the surface smooth, delicately striate near the 

 calices, or but slightly granular. The walls of the corallites 

 (or stony skeletons of the individual polypes) are not per- 

 forate, not distinct from the common tissue (ccenenchyma) , 

 and increase by their inner surface, so as gradually to 

 fill up the cavity from below upwards. The interseptal 

 chambers are only imperfectly divided by a few dissepiments, 

 or horizontal projections of stony matter shot across. The 

 plates (septa) are entire, or have the upper edge slightly 

 divided ; they are well developed, and are few in number. 



We have but one native representative of this family, 

 the genus Lophohelia. 



