. Text-book of zoology for junior students. Zoology. 92 INVEETrBRATE ANIMALS. and the polype-bearing fringes are ccmsiderably Linger, giving the whole organism veiy much the ajipearance of a feather. In Vere- tillum (fig. .53) the upper part of the colony is short and club-shaped, and bears the polypes all round its circumference. Another fimily of the A/ri/onarlic is represented by the so-called "Organ-jjijie conils," of which l\ihipora musica is a well-known ex- ample (fig. ). In this thei'e is a well-developed sclerodermic coral consisting of ininierous cylindrical tubes, which
. Text-book of zoology for junior students. Zoology. 92 INVEETrBRATE ANIMALS. and the polype-bearing fringes are ccmsiderably Linger, giving the whole organism veiy much the ajipearance of a feather. In Vere- tillum (fig. .53) the upper part of the colony is short and club-shaped, and bears the polypes all round its circumference. Another fimily of the A/ri/onarlic is represented by the so-called "Organ-jjijie conils," of which l\ihipora musica is a well-known ex- ample (fig. ). In this thei'e is a well-developed sclerodermic coral consisting of ininierous cylindrical tubes, which are not divided by vertic^J partitions (septa), b>it which are connected by strong trans- verse jilates. The coi-al is bright red in colnur, and the polypes are usually bi-ight green. In its minute structure, the corallum is com- posed of microscopic sj)icules fused Fig. 55.—A, Pnrfion ftf tlie fi^ Tuliif^nra 'iiuisic<i, of tlio natural .size, sliowitig tlie tiilnil;ir CMrallitcs ami tiwiT c^uinecting flours; li, Pttlype of the sauie, gve;ltly eiilavgtd, showing the liioutii and tentacles. The best known grou]), however, of the Alcyonaria is that fpf the Gorr/iiiudii;, represented by the Sea-shrubs, Fan-coraLs, and the Red ('oral of commerce. A few of the members of this family are British, but they attidn their in point of size and numbers in the seas of the tropics. In all the GorgimidtL' the organism consists of a composite structure made up of muuerous polypes miited by a com- mon Hesh or (tig. 5(1, B), the whole supported by a central branched axis or coral. The coral v;iries in composition, being some- times calcareous—,is in lied ('ural—sometimes horny, ami sometimes partly horny and calc-ireous, as in [sis. In all cases, however, the difieis altogether from the sclerodermic coralbnn, which has been described as so characteristic of the reef-building (Virals. Tlie coral in the jiresent instance i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1885
