126 



GORGONIID&. 



PART III. 



Fig. 126. Bed Coral Branch. 



Algiers, found that the individual polypes are either 

 male or female, but that the males and females are on 

 different branches of the same coral, one branch being 



almost exclusively the abode 

 of male polypes, and another 

 of female. The eggs are fer- 

 tilized by the intervention of 

 the water. After an egg is 

 fertilized, it is transferred to 

 the stomach of the female, 

 which thus serves both for 

 digestion, incubation, and 

 transformations of the egg. 

 At first the egg is naked and 

 spherical ; afterwards it be- 

 comes elongated and covered 

 with cilia. A cavity is formed 

 in it, which opens externally, 

 and finally becomes the mouth ; it then acquires the 

 form of a little white worm, and when it comes into the 

 water it is very active, swimming in all directions, 

 avoiding its comrades when they meet, rising and de- 

 scending in the water with its hinder end foremost. 

 It loses its cilia after a time, fixes itself to a rock, and 

 acquires the form of its parent in the manner described 

 as to other Gorgons. 



The red coral generally grows on the under-side of 

 ledges or rocks, in a pendent position, and at consider- 

 able depths. It is not found at 15 or 20 fathoms ; they 

 only begin to fish for it at from 30 to 60 fathoms ; and it 

 is brought up from even 100 or 120, while the strong 

 reef-building corals cannot exist below 25, or at most 

 30 fathoms ; being immensely superior in vigour, these 

 require a greater supply of air, light, and heat. The 

 red coral is generally fished for along the coasts of 

 Algiers and Tunis; it is also found in the seas round 



