CORALS AND CORAL ARCHITECTURE. 



263 



they are nevertheless connected by intervening tissues which form a 

 thin sheet of animal matter covering the surface of the coral, and 

 through which fluids circulate. This sheet of animal matter unites the 

 polypes, but does not destroy their individuality. The budding process 



Fig. 8. 



Porites from the Feejees ; Cells exceedingly small. 



takes place in some species by a spontaneous division of the parent 

 polype. So that in the same cell a new polype forms side by side with 

 the old one (Fig. 5, page 260), and begins an individual life, but the re- 

 sults are essentially the same. 



