Nor do the services of the _Philozoon_ end here; for during sunlight
it is constantly evolving nascent oxygen directly into the surrounding
animal protoplasm, and thus we have actually foreign chlorophyl
performing the respiratory function of native haemoglobin! And the
resemblance becomes closer when we bear in mind that haemoglobin
sometimes lies as a stationary deposit in certain tissues, like the
tongue muscles of certain mollusks, or the nerve cord of _Aphrodite_ and
Nemerteans.
The importance of this respiratory function is best seen by comparing
as specimens the common red and white Gorgonia, which are usually
considered as being mere varieties of the same species, _G. verrucosa_.
The red variety is absolutely free from _Philozoon_, which could not
exist in such deeply colored light, while the white variety, which I am
inclined to think is usually the larger and better grown of the two, is
perfectly crammed. Just as with the anemones above referred to, the
red variety evolves no oxygen in sunlight, while the white yields
an abundance, and we have thus two widely contrasted _physiological
varieties_, as I may call them, without the least morphological
difference.
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