G. GORGONIA. 
195 
branches very close, and coiling one round the other ; 
the latest-formed setaceous. 
Indian Ocean. 
FAN-SHAPED. 
24. Antipathes flabellum. Stem flat, and branch- 
ing ; branches and smaller branches fan-shaped, la- 
teral/ and anastomosed ; height from five to six deci- 
metres. 
Indian Ocean. 
GORGONIA. 
Tree-like Polypidom, simple or branching; the 
branches dispersed or lateral, single or anastomosed ; 
axe longitudinally striated, hard, horny, and elastic, 
or pithy (alburnoide) and brittle ; rind fleshy and ani- 
mated, becoming chalky by desiccation; polypi not 
rising above the rind, nor when dead forming more 
than little tubercles or protuberances on the surface. 
These Polypidoms, by their size, the elegance of their 
form, and the brilliant colours of their envelope, first 
attracted the attention of Zoologists in the 17th and 
18th centuries. With the assistance of the micro- 
scope, which was unknown to their predecessors, 
these revivers of the sciences discovered the polypi of 
the Gorgonias ; but, either engrossed by former preju- 
dices, or from the imperfection of their instruments, and 
not extending their researches beyond the European 
species, in general much smaller than those of a higher 
