THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



141 



living in great abundance off the mouth of the 

 Hermus. P. setacea is common to the Mediter- 

 ranean and the Canaries. 



MM. Quoy and Gaimard, who devoted a few days 

 to the investigation of the marine fauna of the 

 neighbourhood of Gibraltar, when starting on their 

 great voyage in 1826, amongst many new and in- 

 teresting objects, captured a magnificent specimen 

 of a compound polyp, belonging to the genus Vere- 

 tillum, consisting of a cylindrical body, more than 

 a foot in length, yellow and orange, and studded 

 with hundreds of white flower-like stars, each borne 

 on a slender transparent stalk. These compound 

 animals, so uninteresting and even repulsive when 

 cast dead upon the beach, are, when living, amongst 

 the most wonderful and beautiful of the strange 

 things of the sea. 



A remarkable Zoophyte, Funicularia quadrangu- 

 laris, two feet and a half in length, taken by Mr. 

 Mac Andrew off the west coast of Scotland, is also 

 a Mediterranean species. 



In none of their many zoological differences is 

 the contrast between the Red Sea and the Mediter- 

 ranean greater than in' respect of their assemblages of 

 Polyp animals. Of the A ctinice, A . mesembryanthemum 

 and A. tapetum are the only two species in common. 

 This contrast is greatest as to reef-building corals ; 

 the Eed Sea from end to end has literally been ob- 

 structed by them, but not only are they wanting in 

 the Mediterranean, but are equally so over the whole 



