14 SEA-ANEMONES AND CORALS. 



It moves with great rapidity, because it is covered all 

 over with a little vibrating fringe,* and that fringe quiv- 

 ers incessantly, thus keeping the little 

 Coral in quick and constant motion. 

 But when it finds a suitable place at 

 such a depth in the sea as it likes, and 

 No & No where the water is clear and bright, 

 for it does not fancy muddy or 

 sandy water, it attaches itself either to the rocks or 

 the sea-bottom by one end, which flattens and adheres 

 to the ground, while the other spreads ; and the whole 

 has then a cup-shaped form a little depressed at the top. 

 That depression marks where the mouth is presently to 

 be, and before long it becomes a hole in the centre, 

 and all around it feelers or tentacles begin to appear. 

 At this stage it looks very much like our Sea- Anemone, 

 though it has not so many feelers \ but then the Sea- 

 Anemone, when young, has not more. Only in its 

 full-grown condition, does it have the numerous ten- 

 tacles represented in the picture. The sides of the 

 coral animal begin to thicken ; the sac, which is the 

 stomach, forms in the centre, and also the partitions 

 dividing the rest of the body. If we could make a cut 

 across the little Coral, we should see that he is formed 

 inside like the Sea- Anemone ; we should see the cavity 

 in the centre formed by the stomach, and the partitions 

 spreading from it like the spokes of a wheel. But I 

 must explain to you a very important difference be- 

 tween them and the Anemone, which will help you to 



the Reef of Florida. No. 8 seen from the side ; No. 9 from 

 above. 



* Vibratile Cilia of Physiologists. 



