46 



T hare ever procured is the common Sea Fern, G. verrucosa, 

 which is every where abundant. This species presents a great 

 variety of form, two of which induced the iate Mr. Sowerby to 

 elevate tliem into distinct species, but for this there does not 

 appear to be sufficient reason, as the variations most probably 

 depend on the localities in which they grow. 



The general appearance of the Gorgoniadce is stout, ir- 

 regularly arborescent, netted, and more or less palmate or 

 fan-shaped. They are composed of three distinct parts, 

 which, although it is necessary to separate in description, 

 are inseparably united to each other in a physiological re- 

 lation, and constitute together the perfect animal. The 

 parts are the crust or bark, the horny axis, and the central 

 pith. The fleshy crust is always external and warted ; when 

 living, it is soft, fleshy, and of a light vermilion colour, which 

 in death becomes very friable and changes to a yellowish 

 white. It is covered more or less thickly and irregularly 

 with small wart-like prominences, which have on their sum- 

 mits the star-shaped depressions for the polypes. The de- 

 pressions have eight rays, answering to the number of the 

 tentacula; but the circumference of the star is very frequently 

 encroached on for about a fifth of its extent by a fleshy lip 

 which obscures several of the radii. The cells resemble an 

 inverted cone in shape, and are smooth and white. The 

 broadest part of the cone forms the aperture of the cell in 

 the expanded state, and the apex is tubular and continued 

 through the crust in an oblique downward and inward direc- 

 tion till it reaches the horny axis. The tubes vary in length 

 according to the thickness of the crust, but do not inosculate 

 as in the Alcyonium ; after having reached the axis they 

 pierce the membrane of the crust which lies in contact with 

 the membrane of the axis, and pass beneath this membrane 

 also in contact with the horn, and form the longitudinal rugae 

 which are so frequently observed. The crust of the branches 

 is very frequently disfigured with large globular protube- 

 rances, similar to those figured by Ellis as occuring in the 

 G. abietina * and which on dissection prove to be hollow, 

 and to be formed by a separation of the membrane from the 

 axis, forming a cavity which is partially filled with a whitish 

 cellular substance. The surface of the fleshy bark, where it 

 rests on the axis, is membranous and perforated by numerous 

 oval orifices communicating on one side with the tubes of the 

 polypes, and on the other with the ruga? of the axis. If this 

 membrane be examined under a microscope, especially if it 

 has been allowed to undergo partial decomposition, it will 



* Ellis and Solander's Zooph., p. 116. 



