THE SEA-PENS. 



365 



Grey Sea-Pen. 



barbs of a quill, from the margin of which are protruded the 

 rows of polyps which minister to the support of the common 

 body of the compound 

 animal. The purple-red 

 Pennatula phosphorea, 

 which is found in great 

 plenty sticking to the baits 

 on the fishermen's lines, 

 especially when they use 

 muscles to bait their hooks, 

 is one of the most singular 

 and elegant of the British 

 sea-pens. Some authors 

 believe that it is capable 

 of using its fin-like arms 

 like oars, but observations 

 are wanting in corrobora- 

 tion. The pale orange fawn 

 , Virgularia mirabilis, an 

 allied species, has a more elongated slender form than the. 

 pennatula. Its rod-like body, from six to ten inches long, is 

 furnished with short fin-like lobes of a crescent shape, which 

 approach in pairs, but are not strictly oppo- 

 site; they are about the eighth of an 

 inch asunder, and are furnished along 

 the margins with a row of urn-shaped 

 polyp-cells. These very delicate and 

 brittle animals seem to be confined to a 

 small circumscribed part of the coast, 

 which has a considerable depth and a 

 muddy bottom, and the fishermen, accus- virgin™ n*»bm.. 

 tomed to dredge at that place believe from the cleanness 

 of the Virgularias, when brought to the surface, that they 

 stand erect at the bottom with one end fixed in the mud 

 or clay. 



The Gorgonidae (Grorgonia, Primnoa, Corallium, Isis, Mopsea) 

 mainly differ from the Alcyonidae in having an erect and 

 branching stem, firmly rooted by its expanded base. A soft 

 and fleshy crust, studded with numerous polyps, envelops a 

 solid horny or calcareous axis, which serves as a support to the 



