302 Mr. H. J. Carter on the Antipatharia. 



Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime*, by which I observed that, 

 throughout, the words of the latter (who wrote after Dana) 

 were verified, viz. : — " Jusqu'ici on n'a pas e'tudie l'anatomie 

 de ces animaux, et on ignore la disposition des lamelles me- 

 senteroi'des et des organes gene'rateurs ;" so that, as regards the 

 nature of Antipathes, I am just as well off without the actual 

 specimens, since in possessing Pallas's accurate descriptions 

 and Ellis's reliable illustrations I have as much as the speci- 

 mens themselves would present. In short, hardly any thing 

 more than I have stated of Hydradendrium spinosum has, to 

 the best of my knowledge, been published of Antipathes 

 except Ellis's figures of the supposed polyp, which have more 

 a Hydroid than an Actinozoid character. 



All are agreed, from Pallas downwards, that the cortex 

 " non calcareus est ; sed gelatinosum tegumentum, in extremis 

 ramis crassius, inque polypos efHorescens. Hoc quidem cortice, 

 utpote putrescibili, in Museis adservata specimina fere semper 

 orbata videntur" [pp. cit. p. 206). Lamouroux observes that 

 the gelatinous or exterior polypiferous portion almost wholly 

 disappears on desiccation (op. cit. p. 189). Consequently the 

 polyps have never been satisfactorily examined ; and the only 

 original f figures of them given by the authors above men- 

 tioned (which consists of nothing but the mouth and tentacles) 

 are those of Ellis, to which I have alluded (op. cit. tab. 19. 

 figs. 4, 5), which were obtained by " examining in the micro- 

 scope some of the warts that covered a specimen of Antipathes 

 spiralis lately brought from the East Indies, and soaked for 

 some time in warm water " (p. 98) ; while a section of the 

 horny axis, by the same author (p. 6), shows that it is com- 

 posed of concentric layers which, when torn asunder, present 

 the same kind of spiniferous surface as that of the last-formed 

 or outside one of the stem itself; hence, in this respect, it 

 resembles the layers of Hydractinia levispina (Ann. 1873, 

 vol. xi. pi. i. fig. 2, c, d). 



Now, although the concentric lamination of the kerataceous 

 axis of Antipathes is like that of Gorgonia, this, together 

 with its spiniferous surface covered with a gelatinous layer of 

 extreme tenuity which almost wholly disappears on desicca- 

 tion, is much more like a Hydroid Ccelenterate, ex. gr. Hy- 

 dractinia echinata, and especially Hydradendrium spinosum, 

 than Gorgonia, whose cortex and polyps, which are Actinozoid, 

 are for the most part almost as persistent as the horny axis 

 itself ; so that if I am wrong in having broken the rules of 



* Histoire des Zoophytes, Coralliaires, and Atlas, 8vo, 3 vols., 1857. 

 t Milne-Edwards's are copied horn Dana. See at the end of the " Post- 

 script." 



