ANATOMICAL PART. 
REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 
Up to the present the anatomy of the Antipatharia has been rarely searched, since 
sufficiant material with well-preserved polyps was seldom available. The first data were given by 
Kolliker (1866) *), and they relate to the mesogloea of Antipathes subpinnata E. & S. (= Euanti- 
pathes subpinnata). He found that the principal part of the polyps etc. is formed by a solt 
mucoid tissue with numerous small, irregular star-shaped cells; near the axis the coenenchyma, 
which contains (as in the Gorgonidae) alimentary canals, thickens into a firm layer of homo¬ 
geneous connective tissue with numerous small spindle-shaped cells; a similar layer is found in 
the bodywall, beneath the ectoderm. Further he makes some remarks about the structure of the 
horny axis, which is stratified, just like the spines, which grow in layers; the horny substance 
is double-refractive. 
Von Koch gives in 1877 3 ) beside his phylogenetic considerations, some anatomical data 
about Antipathes larix (== Parantipathes iarix) Esper; the tentacles are covered with groups 
of nematocysts; all the mesenteries have a thin layer of connective tissue, covered on both 
sides with entoderm; the two largest ones have mesenterial filaments, straight in their upper part, 
convoluted in their lower part. The ovaria are situated in the broadest part of the mesenteries ; 
the ova are lying in the connective tissue; they are large, conspicuous, with nucleus, nucleolus 
and yolk. — In 1889 (2) he gives some data about several Antipatharia from the Gulf of Naples. 
The most important results are: the microscopical anatomical structure is very simple; the 
ectoderm contains nematocysts, gland-cells, ciliated cells, and in the tentacles nematocyst-batteries ; 
the entoderm is ciliated cylindrical epithelium. The ova and spermatozoa have their origin in 
the entoderm, and are surrounded by the mesogloea; the entire colony is either male or female, 
but never hermaphrodite. — The axis-epithelium is formed by cubic or cylindrical cells. 
Only the transversal mesenteries bear mesenterial filaments, but in two Antipathes- species there 
are also epithelial thickenings along the free border of the sagittal mesenteries. I here are 10 
mesenteries, except in Antipathes glaberrima (= Euantipathes glaberrima), where there are 12. 
Brook (1) is the first who gives an extensive anatomical and histological research ot 
1) leones Histiologicae Abtli. II, Heft i. 
2) Mittheilungen liber Coelenteraten (Morphol. Jabrb. Bd. IV, Suppl. p. 74 — 86). 
