248 BERMUDA. 



The Gorgonias are flexible, and seem like plants 

 growing from the rocks to which they are fixed. 

 Some are branching, and covered with lace-like 

 work ; others are like a feather or a fan ; while 

 some, again, are straight, and some of a drooping 

 form. The stems are flat, angular, or round, and 

 of a dark colour, with an outer crust of a soft 

 substance, full of pores, oiit of which the polypes 

 thrust themselves. 



When a dry branch is macerated in mineral acid, 

 a considerable proportion of carbonate of lime is 

 entirely removed, without altering the original size 

 and figure of the branch : this shows the framework 

 to be an irregular close texture of corneous fibres, 

 the interstices of which had been probably filled in 

 part with a gelatinous fluid. 



Isis hippuris is the type by which this family is 

 illustrated. It has a jointed stony stem, which rises 

 into many loose branches. The bone or support of 

 the animal consists of white, cylindrical, stony- 

 channelled joints, connected together by black, con- 

 tracted, horny, intermediate ones. The flesh is 

 whitish, plump, and full of minute vessels ; the 

 surface of it is full of the little mouths of the cells, 

 which are disposed in a quincunx order, covering the 

 polypes with eight claws. 



