212 THE MICROSCOPE. 



The family Gorgoniadce are named after the three celebrated 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. 

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

 from fifteen to sixteen inches in width (see Plate V. No. 9, and 

 branches surrounding the title-page). 



A widely-diffused class are the Gorgoniadse in every sea ; and 

 though they naturally seem to dwell in deep water, yet when found in 

 that more shallow, their colours are richer, deeper, and brighter. They 

 are flexible, and seem like plants growing to the rocks to which 

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

 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 substance full of pores, out of 

 which the polyps thrust themselves. The flesh when dry is earthy and 

 friable, a considerable proportion of carbonate of lime entering into 

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

 vated with numerous cells for the lodgment of the polyps. 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 gela- 

 tinous fluid. 



The Gorgonia patula of Ellis and Solander is beautiful from its 

 bright red colour ; on its opposite sides it has holes projecting forwards, 

 through which the polyps protrude in search of food. 



Gorgonia flabellum, sometimes called the Sea-fan, Flabellum Veneris, 

 or 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, sometimes purple, with small mouths placed irregularly, hav- 

 ing polyps with eight tentacles ; the bone is black, horny, and slightly 

 striated on the large branches. When alive, the colour is most beauti- 

 ful, generally yellow with red spots, and is of a tough nature ; but it 

 varies much both in shape and colour, presenting some of the most 

 delicate and graceful forms that can be conceived. Its elegant skeleton 

 is generally seen decorating the houses of seafaring persons. Kay, re- 

 ferring to the fan- shape of some marine objects, says, "That the motion 

 of the water descends to a good depth, I prove from those plants that 

 grow deepest in the sea, because they all generally grow flat, in the man- 

 ner of a fan, and not with branches on all sides like trees ; which is so 

 contrived by the providence of nature, for that the edges of them do in 



