coralled

See coraled. coralliferous (kor-a-lif'e-rus), a. [ Cor all i gena (kor-a-lij'e-nä), n. pl. [NL., neut. pl. of cor all i genus: see coralligenous.] In some systems of cla ification, one of the primary divisions of the Actinozoa, the other being the Ctenophora. The mouth always has one or more circlets of tentacles, slender and conical, or short, broad, and fimbriated. The enterocæle is divided into 6, 8, or more inter mesenteric chambers communicating with cavities in the tentacles; the mesenteries are thin and membranous, each ending aborally in a free edge, often thickened and folded, looking toward the center of the axial chamber; and the outer wall of the body has no large paddle-like cilia. Most Cor all i gena are fixed and may give IMG:content-1283.png:[subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors] IMG:content-1284.jpg:[blocks in formation] A, A, cœnosarc or sclerobase, with deep longitudinal canals, f. f. and superficial irregular reticulated canals, A, h. P, hard axis of the coral, with longitudinal grooves, g, answering to the longitudinal ve els. B, an anthozoöid or polyp, with expanded tentacles, d; k, mouth; m, gastric sac; 1, its inferior edge; 1, mesenteries. B ', anthozoõid retracted in its cup, the tentacles, a, withdrawn into the inter mesenteric chambers; a, festooned edges of the cup; &, part of the body which forms the projecting tube when the actinozoan is protruded; c, orifices of the cavities of the invaginated tentacles; e, circumoral cavity. rise by gemmation to zoanthodemes of various shapes. The great majority have a hard skeleton, composed chiefly of carbonate of lime, in some of its forms known as coral, which may be deposited in spicula in the body, or form dense networks or plates of calcareous substance. The chief divisions of the Cor all i gena are the Hex a coralla and the Octocoralla (or Alcyonaria ). The Cor all i gena include all the Actinozoa which form coral, and many which do not, as the sea-anemones, dead-men's-fingers, etc. Nearly all "corals" of ordinary language are hex a coralline; not, however, the red coral, with which the name is most popularly a ociated. The Actinozoa comprehend two groups-the Cor all i gena and the Ctenophora. In the Cor all i gena the outer wall of the body is not provided with bands of large paddle-like cilia. Huxley , Anat. Invert., p. 138.