30 GORGONIAS. 



VALUE. Eighty thousand pounds have been collected in one year. 

 In 1873 Algeria alone employed 311 vessels and 3,150 men, realizing 

 $565,000. The entire yearly collection is valued at over $1,000,000. 



Sea-Fans (Gorgonias). The Gorgonias (Fig. 28) grow 

 in the shape of fans or plumes, branching like trees and 

 shrubs. The stock secreted is either horny or calcareous. 

 Those of the Florida reef are often three feet high and 

 two wide, while the Primnoa^ found on the Banks of New- 



FIG. 28. Sea-fan. 



foundland, grows to a height of over five feet, the branches 

 or stem being as thick as a boy's arm. Their surfaces 

 are network, through which are delicate canals connect- 

 ing the animals. On the Gorgonia ftabellum lives a shell 

 of the same color a curious case of mimicry. 



VALUE. They are made into whips, canes, etc. 



Sea-Pens {Pennatulida). The sea-pens are fixed or 

 free-swimming polyps. A gigantic one ( Umbellularid), 

 four feet high, lives in the Arctic regions, a mile and a 

 half from the surface ; another, ten inches long ( Veretil* 



