58 



picked up in Mount's bay after a storm." Most probably it 

 was foreign, for I have not heard of another specimen hav- 

 ing been taken, and this was dead when found. It has been 

 found near Leith by the late Mr. Mackay, and Mr. Neil, 

 according to Dr. Fleming who saw the specimen, and says it 

 had the appearance of being fresh and recent. 



ALCYONID^B. 



Polype-mass fixed, coriaceous or somewhat carnous with- 

 out any distinct axis, but strengtbened by variously disposed 

 calcareous or siliceous spicula ; polype cells sub-cutaneous, 

 scattered over the surface like stars. 



ALCYONIUM. Linnaeus. 

 Generic Character: Polype-mass lobed, or incrusting, spon- 

 gious, the skin coriaceous, marked with star-shaped pores ; 

 Interior gelatinous, netted with tubular fibres and perfo- 

 rated with longitudinal canals, terminating in the polype 

 cells, which are sub-cutaneous and scattered : Polypes 

 exsertile. 



TEATS, OR DEADMAN'S HAND. Alcyonium Digita- 

 tum. Polype-mass lobed or encrusting, of a fleshy spongy 

 nature, flesh coloured, wrinkled, marked with star-shaped 

 pores even with the surface. PI. 13, fig. 1. 



Alcyonium ramoso-digitatum molle, astericis undiquaque 

 ornatum. Raii, Synop., vol. 1. p. 31, no. 1. Deadman's 

 Hand, or Deadman's Toes, Ellis' Coral., p. 83, no. 2, pi. 32, 

 fig. a A. Alcyonium Manus Marina, Blumenbach, by Gore. 

 Lobularia digitata, Fleming's Brit. An., p. 515. Alcyonium 

 digitatum, Ellis and Solander's Zooph., p. 175, pi. 1, fig. 7, 

 of the polype. Turion's Lin., vol. 4, p. 652. Templeton in 

 Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 9, p. 470. Harvey in Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. 1, new series, p. 475, figs. 56 and 57 (unlike). John- 

 ston's Brit. Zooph., p. 188, pis. xxvi and xxvi*. Al. Loba- 

 tum, Lamouroux's Cor. Flex., p. 336, pi. xii., fig. 4 and 

 pi. xiv. Lobularia Digitata, Roget's Bridgewater Treat., 

 vol. 1 p. 162, fig. 56. Jones' Outlines of An. King., p. 27, 

 fig. 5. 



Hab. Abundant on shells and stones from deep water. 

 Polperro, Goran, Fowey, Mevagissey, Whitsand bay, &c. 



This is a very common production on all parts of our 

 shores, at all depths, and varies in height from a thin incrus- 

 tation to ten inches. It is most familiarly known to our 

 fishermen when it occurs as large, lobulated, fleshy masses, 

 of an orange colour, attached to stones and shells. But it 

 occurs under a variety of forms, to each of which the fish- 

 ermen give a distinctive name. In its early stages it appears 

 as a thin jellow incrustation of about the eighth of an inch 



