ZOANTHARIA. 
163 
madrepore of the Mediterranean. Its polypier presents a very large 
trunk charged with short ascending branches; it usually attains to 
about a yard and a half in height. The polypes are provided with a 
great number of tentacula, in the centre of which the mouth is placed. 
They are deeply buried in the cells, which radiate from numerous 
unequally saillard plates. Peyssonnel, who had seen the polype of 
this colonv, savs : “ I may observe that the ' extremities or summits 
of the branching madrepore, the species in question, which in the Pro- 
vencal we call Sea-fennel, is soft and tender, tilled with a glutinous and 
transparent mucous thread, similar to that which the snail leaves on its 
' '£• 7 5. DendropTiyllia ramea (I)e BlainvilU 1 )- 1’ ig. 76. A part magnified. 
Natural size, with polypiers. 
path. Those extremities are of a fine yellow colour, five or six lines 
111 diameter ; soft, and more than a finger’s breadth in length. I have 
Se en the animal nestling in them ; it seemed to he a species of cuttle- 
or sea-nettle. The body of this sea-nettle must have filled the 
Ce utr e ; the head being in the middle, surrounded by many feet or 
'daws, like those of the cuttle-fish. The flesh of this animal is very 
delicate, and is easily reduced to the form of a paste, melting almost 
Ur 'der the touch.” 
The madrepores abound in all intertropical seas, taking a consider - 
a d J le part in the constitution of the reefs which form the coral and 
Uiadreporic islands so conspicuous in the ocean. The tree-like T)en- 
dr °phylU a (D. ramea, Figs. 75 and 76) have cells of considerable 
m 2 
