490 POLYPI . 



Bodies exist in the ocean that resemble the corals (Polypiers) of which we 

 have been speaking, both in substance and their general form, but in which 

 Polypi have not yet been discovered. Their nature is consequently doubtful, 

 and great naturalists, such as Pallas and others, have considered them as 

 plants ; others, however, consider them as having very small cells, and as 

 being inhabited by coralliferous Polypi. In this case they belong to the 

 present order. Those, in which the interior is filled with corneous threads, 

 still present some analogy to the Ceratophyta. In the 



CORALLINA, Linnaeus, 



We observe articulated stems placed on species of roots, and divided into 

 branches, also articulated, on the surface of which no pores can be seen, and 

 in which no Polypi have hitherto been discovered. 

 They are divided as follows. 



CORALLINA proper, 



Where the calcareous joints have a homogeneous appearance, and are without 

 any apparent bark. 



FAMILY III. 



CORTICATI. 



Tins family comprises genera in which all the Polypi are connected by a 

 common, thick, fleshy, or gelatinous substance, in the cavities of which they 

 are received, and which envelopes an axis varying in form and substance. 

 The Polypi of those that have been observed are somewhat more complex than 

 the preceding ones, and approximate more closely to the Actinise. Internally 

 we observe a stomach from which eight intestines originate, two that are 

 prolonged into the common mass, and two that are shorter, and seem to supply 

 the place of ovaries. 



They are subdivided into four tribes. 



In the first, that of the 



CERATOPHYTA, 



The internal axis has the appearance of wood or horn, and is fixed. Two 

 genera of them are known, and bo.th extremely numerous. 



ANTIPATHES, Linnaeus, 



Commonly termed Black Coral, where the ramous and ligneous-like substance 

 of the axis is enveloped with a bark so soft, that it becomes destroyed after 

 death, when it resembles branches of dry wood. 



