ALCYONOID POLYPS. 85 



phyte, with its lilac or purple polyps fully expanded, looks 

 much like a large cluster of* flowers from a lilac bush. The 

 tubes are united by cross plates at intervals. 



2. Gorgonia tribe, or Gokgonacea. — The following figure 

 represents a species of this tribe from the Kingsmill or Gilbert 



GOTtGONIA ? FLEXTJOSA, D. 



Islands. It is one of the net-like or reticulated species, the 

 reticulation being a result of the coalescence of the branchlets. 

 The general color of the species was crimson ; but when alive 

 and expanded it was covered throughout with yellowish polyps 

 of the form in figure a, though much smaller, the natural size 

 not exceeding a twelfth of an inch. The common sea-fan of 

 the West Indies, Gorgonia flabellum, is much more finely 

 reticulated, the meshes of the net-work being ordinarily not 

 over a fourth of an inch in breadth ; while the fan often grows 

 to a height and breadth of a yard. 



Other species of the Gorgonia family are like clusters 



