240 RADIATES: POLYPS. 



forming it, any more than do other animals in form- 

 ing their own bones. Coral is not a house in which 

 the animal lives ; on the contrary, the coral is wholly 

 inside of the animals, and it is only when the polyps 

 die, wither, and disappear that we see the solid coral 

 itself. Polyps grow in various and most wonderful 

 and beautiful forms, imitating almost all kinds of veg- 

 etation, as lichens, fungi, mosses, ferns, grasses, herbs, 

 shrubs, and trees. A hundred years ago, or more, 

 they were thought to be plants, and even the great 

 naturalist, Linnaeus, regarded them as plant-animals, 

 that is, partaking of the character of both plants and 

 animals; but naturalists now regard them as true ani- 

 mals, although they are often called Zoophytes, a word 

 .which means Animal-Plants. The colors of these won- 

 derful animals of the sea are as beautiful and almost 

 as varied as their forms; and some of the polyp com- 

 munities equal, in splendor of colors, the most beauti- 

 ful flower-gardens of the land ; even beds of daisies, 

 pinks, and asters have their rivals beneath the waves 

 of the sea. 



SEA-PENS, GORGONIAS, &c., OR ALCYONARIANS. 



These are polyps which have eight long fringed or 

 lobed tentacles, around a narrow disk, Figures 487- 

 489. and which form compound clusters or commu- 

 nities by budding. The Sea-Pens, Verritillums, and 

 Renillas are polyps which are arranged on a more or 

 less expanded disk, which is connected with a sort of 

 stem or peduncle, by means of which the community 

 may move about or fix itself in the sand or mud. 

 The Sea-Pens are so called from their resemblance to 

 a quill. The Renilla, Figure 487, found on the coast 



