ZOANTHARIA. 
161 
Datives of the Indian Seas, which De Blainviile arranges in three 
groups, according as they are simple and circular, simple and compressed, 
°r complex and oblong. In Fungia echinata, represented in I ig- 7 2, 
've have a species which inhabits the Indian and Chinese Seas. It 
belongs to the last group, being oblong in form, convex above, and 
concave below. The hollow, from which the lamellae or chamber-walls 
proceed, are of considerable length ; the toothed partitions are vei'y 
Irregular, thin and prickly, resting upon their lower edge, in order to 
leave the concave portion of the field free to a host ot excrescences, 
resembling the roof of a grotto studded with small stalactites. 
The conformation of the softer parts of this polypier has been 
described by many travellers. The upper portion of the body of the 
a nimal, corresponding to the lamelliform part of the polypier, is fur- 
nished with scattered tentacula, very long in some species, and re- 
markably short in others. These tentacula appear to terminate in a 
small sucker. The animal seems to recover its position with difficulty, 
"when overturned. In order to complete our description of these 
curious madrepores, we may refer to Fungia agariciformis, repre- 
sented in Fio\ 73. This remarkable species inhabits the Bed Sea and 
the Indian Ocean, and is here represented with its polypes. 
De Blainviile gave the name of Madrkpokaia to the second group of 
bis stony Zoantharia, placing them after the MadrejjhyUisn. I he pro- 
ducts of this section are generally arborescent, with small, partially lamel- 
liform cells, which are constantly porous in the interstices of the walls of 
the cells, this being its most important characteristic. Thus the visceral 
a Pparatus constitutes the essential part of the polypicr, presenting no 
s ide plates, the visceral chamber being open from the base to the summit, 
a Dd neither filled with dissepiments, pulpy matter, nor with tabulae. 
The history of these inhabitants of the deep is extremely obscure, 
and will probably always remain so ; the most beautiful of their pro- 
ductions are intertropical, and consequently beyond the reach of dis- 
miminating observers during the life of the animal. Solander proposed 
1° divide the genus according to certain characteristics in the growth 
the polypier, and De Blainviile has rearranged the groups formed by 
Lamarck, Lamouroux, and Goldfuss, with special reference to the soft 
Parts of the animals figured by Lesueur, Quoy, Gaimard, and others, 
w ho have observed them in their native state 
M 
