10 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



growing on Alg?e probably not more than two years old, 

 the growth of the zoophyte must be pretty rapid. The 

 growth of Fhistra foUacea is often very considerable on 

 LaminaricB e\idently only a year old. We have seen the 

 silvery web overspreading the frond of a Lamhiaria several 

 feet in extent, though the plant was not in all likelihood 

 more than two years old. Though the growth, then, of 

 corals in the Pacific may not be so rapid as even the Me- 

 diterranean corals, yet from analogy we are disposed to 

 conclude that their growth is by no means so slow as some 

 imagine. 



But slow or not slow, as coral reefs and coral islands are 

 chiefly the work of marine artificers which are nearly allied 

 in their nature to our British Zoophytes, which we mean 

 to describe, and as their operations are carried on much in 

 the same manner, we are paving the way for the study of 

 the less, when we turn our attention for a little to the 

 greater. It is like applying the magnifying glass to what is 

 minute when we become better acquainted with the larger 

 sized relatives. And certainly there is scarcely anything in 

 the whole range of Natural History more deser\ang of our 

 attention, or better fitted to fill us with wonder and admira- 

 tion, than when we see that the great Creator can, by means 



