SECT. IV. 



GORGONIID&. 



127 



Sicily and Sardinia, and in the Grecian Archipelago. 

 The red coral is always irregularly branched. The 



Pig. 127. Eed Coral (greatly magnified), from ' Histoire Naturelle 

 du Corail,' par M. Lacaze Duthiers. 



branches are sometimes white, supposed to be from dis- 

 ease ; the white coral of commerce is a species of Caryo- 

 phyllia, an Actinian, and not an Alcyon, zoophyte. 



The Corallium Johnstoni, a native of the Atlantic, 

 has a white axis, with branches spreading flatly and 

 horizontally like a fan from the rock to which it is 

 attached; it is entirely covered with a yellowish flesh, 

 but the polypes only inhabit the upper surface, as if they 

 could not live in shade. The Corallium secundum, a 

 similar zoophyte, was discovered by Professor Dana near 

 the Sandwich Islands, with a white or rose-coloured fan- 



