ZOANTHARIA. 
165 
viduals forming it being always completely united together. Extei- 
nally it presents the figure of an irregular trellis-work, more or less 
loosely connected in its meshes. As a type ot this organization, we 
give a figure of the Forked Porites (P. fureata, Fig. 78), of the 
natural size. The branches are generally dichotomous, that is, rising 
in pairs obtusely lobed. In some ot the species the rays are more 
Fig. 78. Porites furcata (Lamarck), natural size. 
hilly marked, and resemble a bed of miniature anemones thicnly 
cr owded together, as in Gonispora cvlumna, in which the polypes 
We a central mouth, round which the twelve short tentacula radiate ; 
Ihe polypier is stony, fixed, branched, or lobed, having a free surface 
c °vered with a great number of regular stars, which are highly 
characteristic, and cannot he confounded with those of an astrea or 
madrepore. 
!n the Tabulate Madreporides, the polypier is essentially composed 
