alcyonaria

Updated: May 12, 2025

Nearer the shore the stony blocks are overspread by masses of that singular skeleton-less coral, known as alcyonaria partaking of the nature of rubber and of leather an ugly, repulsive, tyrannous growth, over-running and killing other and more delicate corals, as undesirable pests crowd out useful and becoming vegetation.

E. J. (Edmund James) Banfield - Confessions of a Beachcomber

In the zoophyte branch, class Alcyonaria, one finds the order Gorgonaria, which contains three groups: sea fans, isidian polyps, and coral polyps. It's in this last that precious coral belongs, an unusual substance that, at different times, has been classified in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms.

Jules Verne - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea