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Show POLYPI. 416 In the fourth tribe the animal rind or bark encloses a mere fleshy substance without an axis either osseous or horny. In ALCYONIVM, Lin. As in the Pennatulre, we observe Polypi with eight denticulated arms, and intestines prolonged into the common mass of the ovaries: but this mass is not supported by an oss~ous axis; it is always fixed to the body; and where it is drawn out into trunks and branches, nothing is found internally, but a gelatinous substance traversed by numerous canals surrounded with fibrous membranes. The bark is harder and excavated by cells into which the Polypi withdraw more or less .!e1n.. tdiriegliyta. tumTh, eE ll., Corall., XXXII, which is divided into thick and short branches; and the .fl. exos, where branches are more slender, of a beautiful red, &c., are very abundant in European seas. Linnreus and his successors have rather lightly united to the Al· cyonia various marine bodies of different tissues but always without any visible Polypi. Such are THETHYA, Lam. Where we observe the interior roughened with long, siliceous, spi· ral lines, which unite on a similarly siliceous and central nucleus. The crust, as in Spongia, presents two sorts of holes; the first, closed by a sort of grating, must be for the intromission of water, and the second, which are gaping, for its exit(l). (1) See Messrs Audouin and Milne Edwards, Ann. des Sc. Nat.,' XV, p.17. N.B. A great portion of the .!llcyonia of Lam. belong in reality to his The· thyA ;ed. d the fossil genera, which M. Lamouroux thinks he can approximate to the .!llcyonia or Thethy;e: his HALLIROE, and those which form his order of the Ac· TINU.RI.&; his CaENONDoronA, HIPl'A.LINJE, LIMNOD.EE, SERE./£, &c.-all produe· tions of which the na.ture is more or less problematical. CORALLIFERI. 417 After the AI cyom· a are also placed the SPoNGIA, Lin.(l) Or Sponges; marine, fibrous bodies ' h appears to be a sort of tenuou 1 . v ose only sensible portion s ge at1ne wh · h d · ing a trace of it, and in which 'th p 1 1 c. rles off, scarcely Ieav-have yet been discovered L' n.el Ser o ypl nor other moving parts . lvmg ponges 'd of tremulousness or cont rae tI' On when the are sat to exhibit a sort affirmed that the pores, with their su y. are touched; it is also present a sort of palpita.f h . perficles, are perforated, and . IOn; t e ex1stence of tl . ever, 1s doubted by M. Grant(2). lese motiOns, how- . Sponges assume innumerable sha e . cies, and resemble shrubs h . p s, each accordmg to its spe- Every one knows the ' OI ns, vases, tubes, globes, fans, &c. S. officinalis, or common S on e . . brown masses, formed of ext! gl ' :htch lS found in large fibres,. perforated with me y ne, flexible, and elastic canals, all of which intercnoummero~s pores and little irregular mumcate. (1) The genus of the Sponges is extrem 1 . . . well repay its study .,.... de L k e y rlch m curious species and wo ld • ~u. amarc -An V , u an excellent guide. See also th . . sans e.rt., II, 345, et seq.-will prove Nat., XI, pl. xvi. e lmportant Memoir of M. Grant, Ann. des Sc. thi(s2 )o pMin. ioAnu odfo Mui.n G anra<nl tM. . Edwar<ls ' A nn. d es Sc. Nat., XI, pl., xvi, have adopted VoL. IV.-3 C |
