81 
TAB. XL. 
GORGONIA viminalis ? 
Slender Gorgonia. 
Class 6. Vermes. Order 4. Zoophyta. 
Gen. Char. Animal growing in the form of a plant. 
Stem coriaceous, corky, woody, homy, or bony, 
composed of glassy fibres, or like stone, striated, 
tapering, dilated at the base, covered with a 
vascular or cellular flesh or bark, and becoming 
spongy and friable when dry. Mouths or florets 
covering the surface of the stem, and polype- 
bearing. Turt. 
Spec. Char. Slender, branched, florets seated all 
round the stem, each with a large valve and 
several smaller ones; bark yellow. 
Syn. Gorgonia viminalis ? Soland. and Ellis , Coral, 
t. 12./. 1. 
T his is not rare on our coast, though it is but little known. 
The first specimen I received was by favour of Mr. Batten 
from Mount’s Bay in Cornwall. I have also received it 
from Scotland, and Colonel Montague informs me that it 
is plentiful on the Devonshire coast. 
It is somewhat remarkable, that that part which we 
should suppose to be the lodgment of the animal, commonly 
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