\Q FLORIDA REEFS. 



An endless variety of Gorgonias, for the most part too little known yet 

 to be fully characterized, grow in tufts between the coral heads or upon the 

 coral sands and in the mud flats. Among them are the Halcyonia growing 

 in clusters, the branching Gorgonias forming dense bushes, and the beautiful 

 sea-fans, a kind of Gorgonia, the branches of which spread in flat expansions 

 forming a network of anastomoses, the meshes of which are covered with 

 distinct animals. Again, innumerable polyps, like mollusks belonging to the 

 lower fomilies of that class, spread over the same ground, frequently aping, 

 in their manifold combinations, the diversity of corals on which they rest. 

 So similar are some of them to the true corals that they have only recently 

 been recognized as mollusks, and referred to that type under the name of 

 Bryozoa. Among them is one species of particular interest for the geologist, 

 because it is the first living analogue ever found of that curious extinct 

 family, the Graptolites, so common among the oldest fossiliferous rocks. 

 Its modern representative was discovered in the shoal waters of Key West. 



The Echini are more numerous here than upon any other part of the 

 American coast. They belong to the genera Echinus, Tripneustes, Dia- 

 dema, Cidaris, Clypeaster, and Encope. We found no Spatangoids, though 

 they are known to occur on the West India Islands. The Diademas are 

 found among the coral boulders, generally in nests together, frequently 

 concealed in the larger excavations of the coral heads. The Clypeasters 

 and Encopes on the contrary, live upon the coral sand flats, while the 

 Cidaris prefer the shoal grounds of the Corallines and Nullipores. Holothuria 

 swarm in myriads upon the mud flats; suggesting by their numbers the 

 feasibility of collecting them for sale as Trepang. This is an important 

 article of commerce in China and the East Indies, and their edible species 

 resembles ours so closely that I believe the latter might be used in the 

 same way and furnish a profitable industry. So may the sponges of 

 Florida, for which there is already considerable demand. Beside this 

 wealth of animal life, the reef abounds in tropical sea-weeds. Of these the 

 well-known Gulf-weed is the most striking. It seems strange that the 

 origin of these floating weeds should be doubted when they are found grow- 

 ing so abundantly. Even a brief description of the immense number of 

 shells, worms, crabs, lobsters, shrimps, craw-fishes, and fishes, seen every- 

 where upon the reef, would be out of place here. In variety, in brilliancy 

 of color, in elegance of movement, the fishes may well compare with the 

 most beautiful assemblage of birds in tropical climates. 



