| OCR Text |
Show 394 POLYPI. ORDER III. CORALLIFERI( 1 ). . . ft te that numerous suite of species The Coralhferl co~Sdl ud as marine plants, and of which h. h e long consi ere . w 1~ V:~r in fact united in great numbers to constl-the mdtvtduals ar~ 1 tly fixed like plants, either form-tute compound _amml a s, mos. ons by means of a solid internal . tern or sunp e expansl ' al mg a 8 he individual animals, more or less an ogous to substan~e.. T H drre are all connected by a common body, the Act1n1re 0~ Y . ' that what is eaten by one nd are nourished In common, so h a . · f the general body, and of all the ot er goes to the nutrition o 1 . . . r f . 8 even in common, at east 1t 1s cer· Polypi. . Thelrfvo 1 Ion .1 s such as the Pennatulre, which are tainly so In the ree specie ' . , d th seen sw.i mm.m g by the contracti.o ns of their stems, an e combined motions of their Polypi. The name of Polypiers has been given to the common parts of these compound animals ; they are ahyays formed by de· . . d . 1 rs like the ivory of teeth, but are some· PositiOn, an In aye . . . f th ti. mes on t h e sur1c. ace, and ·~ ometimes In t. h.e Interio.r o . e compoun d ani. ma1 • This difference of position has g1ven l'lSe to the following families. FAMILY I. TUBULARII. Those of the first inhabit tubes of which the common gela· th Here is another instance of the many (l)ThePOLYPESAPOLYPIERSOfourau or. . k doftheimprO• difficulties I have had to encount~r in the course of thls wor , an CORALLIFERI. 395 tinous body traverses the axis, like the medulla of a tree, aud that are open, either on the summit or sides, to allow the passage of the Polypi. Their more simple Polypi appear to be chiefly analogous to the Hydrre and Cristatellre( 1 ). TuBIPORA, Lin. Simple tubes of a stony substance, each containing a Polypus. These tubes are parallel, and united from space to space by transverse laminre, which has caused them to be compared to the pipes of an organ. The most common species. T. musica, L.; Seb., III, ex, 89, is of a beautiful red; its polypi are green, and formed like Hydrre. Very abundant in the archipelago of India(2). It appears that we must approximate to the Tubipora certain fossil Coralliferi (Polypiers) also composed of simple tubes, such as the CATENIPORA, Lam., where the tubes are deposited in lines that intercept vacant meshes(3); the FAvosiTEs, id.(4), composed of crowded hexagonal tubes, &c. TuBULARIA, Linn. Simple or branched tubes of a horny substance, from the extremities of which issue the Polypi. priety of the attempts to establish the use of French terms in the Sciences, now being made, notwithstanding the inconvenience, confusion and error they are sure to produce. The term polypier, for which we have no adequate word, has lately been coined to express the common part of these compound animals, or the substance we usually denominate Cora1,-Corallium-and as it is an excretion1 I have ventured to ren. der Polypt!8 d Polypl~a by Polypi Cb'l'alliferi, and the term polypiera by the word C()ra/ • .11m. Ed. (1) This order istlie PoLrPl:s-J. Tuuux of our author. Am. Efl (2) The othe~ Tubiporz of Gmelin do not belong to this genus; some of them, those of Fab., Groenl., in particular, are perhaps tubes of Annelides, but the sup· position that the above animal belongs to this last mentioned class is erroneous. It is a true Polypus. See Quoy and Gaym., Zool., de Freycin., pl. 88. {3) Tttbipora catenulata, Gm., Linn., Amam., Ac., I, iv, 20. (4) Ct»'al/,'um gqtklmultcum, Am~n., Ac., J, iv, 27:-Fttv. commu1te, Lamouroux, Ac., Sol., and Ell., pl. 75, f. 1, 2. |
