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The Museum Gazette 



Fig. i shows stocks, natural size, growing on a cockle 

 shell. The branches are dichotomous, and arranged in 

 whorls round the stem, four to a whorl. 



This zoophyte is very distinct in its "bottle-brush" appear- 

 ance ; the lower branches decay and fall away, fresh ones 

 being produced at the apex. 



Fig. 2 represents a magnified portion of the branch. Note 

 the alternate cells arranged in two rows and closely pressed 

 to the stem, and the pear-shaped vesicles. 



Fig. 3 shows the young condition of the polypidom 

 magnified about four times. 



No. VI. — Sea-fans and Sea-shrubs (Gorgonid^e). 



Amongst the beautiful objects to be found in all museums, 

 and also in many drawing-room collections, are the Sea- fans. 

 These structures, which are often a foot and a half or two feet 

 in height and the same in breadth, present a network of 

 branches, a stem, and a root. It is exceedingly difficult to the 

 observer to think otherwise than that they are plants. Yet it is 

 quite certain that they are the framework upon which have 

 lived colonies of polypes, and that these polypes are of animal 

 nature. They belong in fact to the family of Corals. 



In many specimens the network arrangement is much more 

 developed than that shown in the illustrations which we here 

 copy from Dr. Johnston's work. Many of these fans are quite 

 flat, and look as if they might serve well for the purpose implied 

 by their name. Others, however, grow in a more tree-like 

 manner, resembling what is gathered on the coast as " sam- 

 phire." To these the name of " Sea-shrubs " is often given. 

 The Alcyonarids, " Cow's Paps," or "Dead Men's Fingers," 

 are their near allies. (See previous plate and page 85.) 



The network arrangement is due to the tendency to branch 

 out on the flat in all directions, and for the branches to coalesce 

 wherever they touch each other. As seen in museums these 

 structures vary in colour from a deep orange red to yellow or a 

 dirty white. They present a roughened, almost crumbling 



