( Antipathidse) /ro?7i the Folar Seas. 79 



its prey beyond the Polar Sea ; and were we even to stretch 

 this possibility to its utmost limits, this Antipatliarian would 

 still remain a northern form, and the diffusion of the family 

 as far as the northern seas would remain indubitable. 



The Black Corals, or Antipathidee, are still among the less- 

 known animal-forms ; it is only a few years since their struc- 

 ture was so far elucidated * that they could be arranged in 

 their right place in the system as a type analogous to the 

 Horny Corals (Gorgoniidse) in the sex- or multitentaculate 

 order of Coralliaria. On account of the great softness and 

 perishableness of the outer layer ("flesh"), which, again, is 

 chietly caused by the apparently total want of hard parts 

 (" sclerites "), it is seldom that we find in collections specimens 

 which show any traces of this the essential living part of these 

 animals — the horny, most frequently black and spinous "axis" 

 being in general all that remains, and the only thing that we 

 have to depend upon in the description, specific distinction, 

 and grouping of these forms. Most of them, moreover, are 

 known only by imperfect descriptions or defective figures 

 (those of Professor Lacaze-Duthiers's excellent revision f of 

 the whole family, founded on the materials in the Paris Mu- 

 seum, have, unfortunately, never appeared) ; and of not a few 

 we do not know whence they come. That under these cir- 

 cumstances the determination of species presents nearly insu- 

 perable difficulties will be evident ; but, on the other hand, I 

 must admit, after the experience that I have been able to 

 obtain by the examination of the comparatively considerable 

 collection in the Museum (seventeen species), that in general 

 it is not difficult to trace the limits between one species and 

 another. The modes of ramification especially present many 

 characteristic and easily grasped differences, although it may 

 be less ea'^y to express these in words. 



That the present specimen, after lying, whether for a short 

 or a long time, in the stomach of a shark, is without any trace 

 of the softer and more perishable parts, is a matter of course ; 

 but in other respects it is well preserved. That it represents 

 a new species is also very probable, as the locality of its oc- 

 currence is so exceedingly distant from that of any previously 

 known Antipathid. But upon this circumstance we must 

 not for the present lay very great stress, as it is certain that 



* First elucidated (if we leave out of consideration what Marsigli 

 (1725), Ellis (1786), and Gray (1832) had previously published with 

 regard to it) by Dana (Explor. Exped. Zoophytes, x. tab. 56. figs. 1 & 2), 

 and afterwards more completely by Lacaze-Duthiers (Ann, Sci. Nat. 

 5" s^r., Zool. & Pal._, tomes ii. & iv. 1864-65). 



t Loc. cit. tome ii. p. 173, and several other places. 



7* 



