CELENTERA TES. 
5*4 
\ 
sixty miles from the coast of Greenland. The polyp-stocks consisted of a long, 
thin stem, ending in a bundle of polyps. The larger specimen was two yards long. 
These two 
specimens, soon 
after being 
described, were 
lost, but a very 
similar form 
( U. thomsoni ) 
was obtained 
during the 
Challenger ex¬ 
pedition ; and 
other species have been 
discovered in various lati¬ 
tudes, at great depths. 
Two were found between 
Portugal and Madeira, at 
two thousand one hundred 
and twenty fathoms, while 
U. leptocaulis was taken in 
the Indian Ocean, some two 
thousand five hundred 
fathoms below the surface. 
The accompanying illustra¬ 
tion shows a species ( U. 
encrinus ) from the northern 
seas. 
Another family of 
eight-rayed corals is that 
of the sea-fans, or Gorgo- 
niidce, of which the beauti¬ 
ful, horny, tree, and bush¬ 
like growths give no idea of the living coral. In 
order to gain an idea of the latter, we must picture 
these trees thickly covered with beautiful eight-rayed 
anemones. As in the case of ordinary corals, the 
polyps secrete the horny branches beneath their bases, 
and on these they rise in gracefully branching colonies. 
All the sea-fans are attached, and branch in the most 
various ways, some in all directions, others only in one 
plane; in some cases simple branches run out at an 
angle or spirally, forming fans or nets, etc. In most, 
the axis is horny and flexible, and they might be 
called horny corals, but single calcareous particles are 
enclosed in the axis, and its soft covering is crowded Umbellula encrinus (nat. size). 
Umbellula thomsoni (nat. size). 
