200 
CLASS ILL— ORDER II. 
rise to many metres in height. If we may judge from 
the axe of some unknown Gorgonias I have had the 
opportunity of examining, and whose diameters have 
exceeded five centimetres (about two inches), their 
size must be enormous in the equatorial seas, from 
whence these Polypidoms originate. 
The Gorgonias inhabit all seas, and are always found 
at considerable depths : I do not imagine they could 
exist in those places that are covered and uncovered 
by the tides. Like other Polypidoms, they are larger 
and more numerous between the tropics, than in the 
cold or temperate regions. No use either in art or 
medicine has yet been made of them ; they have hi- 
therto only been sought as objects of curiosity, and as 
ornaments to cabinets of natural history. 
SECTION I. 
Polypi in the interior , and not projecting ; rind smooth , 
very rarely charmelled or furrowed. 
TWO-EDGED. 
1. Gqrgonia anceps . Panicled, and nearly dicho- 
tomous ; branches flattened like a sword with two 
edges ; polypi on the sides. 
Seas of Europe and America. 
PINNATED. 
2. Gorgonia pinnata. Stem branching, and al- 
most compressed ; pinnated, and marked with one or 
