122 CORALS OF THE LYCIAN COAST. 



of an orange-colour, shaped like shields, and 

 furnished with a great many fins.* 



The most common species of Actinea were the 

 Antliea cereus and the Actinea rubra. From their 

 abundance and dissimilarity, their distinctions, 

 and at the same time resemblances, must always 

 have attracted attention, and in them we may 

 recognise the smaller and larger kinds of o^aX^ 

 distinguished by Aristotle. A rarer animal of 

 the same tribe is the Edwardsia vestita, which 

 lives in a tube of mucilaginous matter and 

 cemented stones, constructed by itself. We 

 found Actinece to range as deep as twenty 

 fathoms. 



The coast of Lycia, more than any other part 

 of the iEgean, abounds in the only Mediter- 

 ranean coral that forms masses of considerable 

 size. This is the Cladacora ccespitosa. It is a 

 group of strong cylinders, each as large as an 

 eagle's quill, which branch and interlace, and 

 grow in such a fashion upon the rock, as to 

 resemble a head of cauliflower — a resemblance 

 the more striking on account of the yellow 

 colour of the expanded polypes terminating the 



* trepa (fcunrioiv ofAoia, to \xtv ^piOfxa epvdpa, 7TT€pvyta 

 ci^ovtci irvKra. llepi Zwuu. iv. 7. 



