Seaside Natural History 



8 9 



surface, as if crusted with dried ochreous plaster. This crust 

 represents that which in the living state was a soft fleshy sub- 

 stance in which the individual polypes were embedded, with 

 power to extrude themselves and to again retire. It constitutes 

 a sort of bark (cortex) to the coral-stem, and is technically 

 known as the ccenosarc. The central stem upon which this 

 ccenosarc is expanded is called the sclerobasis. The common 

 red and black coral of the shops is a sclerobasis from which 

 the enveloping ccenosarc has been wholly removed. The mean- 

 ing of the word ccenosarc (literally common-flesh) is a flesh 

 which, for purposes of nutrition, the polypes share in common ; 

 they feed together, and they jointly contribute to the nutritive 

 juices which circulate in it. Thus we have a most curious 

 instance of a number of animals living in a sort of partnership 

 or compound body. They are not only supported on the same 

 stem, but they share in nutrition much as the buds on a tree 

 share in its sap, and contribute to the elaboration of that sap. 

 We cannot wonder that the term Zoophyte, or plant-animal, 

 was for long claimed as appropriate to these structures. Their 

 roots, however, are different from those of most plants in that 

 they do not take up anything, but serve only for fixation. 

 Other features also definitely mark them out as animals. 

 They are usually attached to some foreign body. 



The Sea- Fans were formerly known as Gorgonias, and are 

 still classed with certain other corals under the family name of 

 Gorgonid^e. The name Gorgon is somewhat far-fetched, and 

 was originally applied because their stems were supposed to 

 resemble the snaky hair of the Fury. For popular use the 

 name Gorgon-corals might perhaps be suitable, and would tend 

 to fix in the mind their true nature. The Sea- Fan most 

 usually encountered in museums is the Gorgonia flabellum^ or 

 Flabellum veneris. It has been found accidentally on the British 

 shore, but is not a native. 



The Primnoa lepadificea is a species of Gorgon coral which 

 grows on the Shetland and Norwegian coasts (Gulf Stream), 

 and is usually about two feet high, and is reputed sometimes to 



