CHARACTERISTIC DEEP-SEA TYPES. — POLYPS. 145 
gance of form, and for the brilliant lustre and iridescent colors 
of the axis, in some of a bright emerald-green, in others like 
burnished gold or mother-of-pearl. The known species are all 
l 
Fig. 456 a. — Iridogorgia Pourtalesii. 
inhabitants of deep water, and with the exception of Dasy- 
gorgia Agassizii, which occurs off the New England coast, are 
all from the West Indies. 
A large species is Zepidogorgia gracilis, which grows to a 
height of nearly three feet. A smaller gorgonian, but perhaps 
the most common off our east coast, extending from 200 to 
about 1,300 fathoms, is Acanella Normani (Fig. 457), a 
branching bush-like orange-brown coral. It grows to a height 
of about a foot, and is nearly as broad as high, its branches 
growing out three or four together from the joints. 
Cerutoisis ornata is a large and beautiful species peculiarly 
characteristie of deep water in all latitudes, its golden or bronzy 
chitinous joints contrasting finely with the clear ivory-white 
calcareous ones. Lepidisis is a gorgonian growing in the shape 
of a tall thin stem a yard or more in height, its axis divided 
