THE ANNALS 

 MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



[THIRD SERIES.] 

 No. 82. OCTOBER 1864. 



XXVI. — On the Antipatharian Genus Gtirardia. 

 By M. Lacaze-Duthiers*. 



The animals producing the poly paries to which Lamarck gave 

 the names of Gorgonia tuberculata and Ant^athes glaberrimaf 

 and for which Dr. Gray established the genus Leiopathes, have 

 hitherto been unknown. The object of the researches which I 

 now submit to the Academy of Sciences is the filling up of this 

 gap in our knowledge, the definition of a new genus, and the 

 precise determination of the objects described by the authors 

 under the names which have just been cited. 



M. Valenciennes having done rac the honour of handing over 

 to me the revision of the collection of Antipathes belonging to 

 the museum, I have ascertained, by the examination of the 

 tickets written by Lamarck himself, that this illustrious natu- 

 ralist gave the name of Antipathes glaberrima to the denuded 

 polypar)' of the same species that he called Gorgonia tuberculata 

 when it bore the animal layer ; that Dr. Gray created the genus 

 Leiopathes for Antipathes glaberrima, Esper; and lastly, that 

 Jules Haime has described this same species under the name of 

 Leiopathes Lainarcki. On the other hand, I easily perceived that 

 if limarck had distinguished by two different names one and 

 the same thing in different states of preservation, he had, on the 

 other hand, confounded two different things under the name of 

 Antipathes glaberrima. 



Without mentioning the names of Zoanthus and PalythoOj 

 given in collections to specimens of Gorgonia tuberculata, Lamk., 

 prc8er> ed in spirit and having their polypes expanded, it is easy 

 to prove that great confusion exists with regard to these objects. 

 However, it is just to add that this confusion is the necessary 

 consequence of having for examination only specimens in various 



♦ Tranalatecl from the Comptes Rendus, July 11, 1864, p. 861. 

 Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xiv. 16 



