pur pur eh dijiichis, ojfe The flefh is of a pale yellow
corneo flavefcente. color, with rows on both fides
of purple mouths. The bone
is horny and yellowifh.
T ab. 16.
Plukenet amalth. tab. 452. fig. 3.
This beautiful Sea-Feather was fent me from Cape
Coaft Caftle, in Africa.
It grows flat, about a foot high ; the Hem is often full
o f fmall barnacles, which it covers over. The old
branches are irregular, but the young branches are pinnated,
like the Sertularia abietina, or Sea-Fir veficular
Coralline.
23. Gorgonia elongata.
Gorgonia dichotoma di-
varicata, ramis longiori-
bus afcendentibus, came
tetragona rubra crajjfa,
ofculis ereElis fecundum
angulos fubimbricatiSy ojfe
tenui corneo flavefcente.
Forked Gorgon.
This Gorgon has long eredt
branchesj which are fubdi-
vided and divaricated. ■ The
flefh is o f a Vermillion color,
very plump and fquare; the
little mouths are placed along
the corners; they are erect,
and difpofed fomething like
tiles by one another. T h e
bone is of a horny confidence,
very flender, and of a yellowifli
color.
Gorgonia elongata. Linn. Syft. Nat. Ed. 12. p. 1291.
This fcarlet Sea-Shrub was brought from the Weft Indies.
My fpecimen is about eighteen inches high. The
flefh is full of little warts, with points looking upwards ;
5 thefe
thefe are difpofed in rows on the angles of the branches,
and feem to tend one over the other.
IX. A N T I P A T H E S .
ANT I P A T H E S , commonly ca lled
B la c k C o ra l,
Animal crefcens plantte
facie. ,
Stirps intus cornea, fp i-
nulis exiguis obfita, . baß
explanata, extus came ge-
latinofa, verrucis
ris obduEla.
Ovaria, incerta, nifiovula
ex poly pis, ßcut in Gor-
goniisy Alcyoniisy & c.
Is an animal fgc> rowinOg in the
fhape of a plant.
The ftem is horny in the
infide, befet with very fmall
fpines, and fpread out at the
bafe. The outfide is covered
with a gelatinous flefh, full of
warts, from whence the polypes
extend themfelves.
The ovaries are uncertain,
unlefs the little eggs proceed
from the polypes, as in the
Gorgonias, Alcyoniums, &c.
It appears from the old botanical writers, that the feve-
ral forts of Black Corals were formerly called by the name
of Antipathes; but as the charadters of thofe marine bodies
were not fo exadtly looked into then, as they are now
in this prefent inquifitive age, fome of the Gorgonias,
whofe horny internal parts are black, were probably included
amongft them.
That they were not only ufed as fceptres for princes,
but likewife for divining rods, and other fuch purpofes,
is clear from Salmafius’s remarks to Solinus, wherein he
fays, that Antipathes denotes fomething proper to refill
incantations, and that they were ufed for that purpofe by
O feveral