256 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



the Marshall Islands, which abound in Atolls and lie east 

 of the Caroline Islands, and according to the observations of 

 Captains Bird Allen and Moresby in the West Indies and in 

 the Maldives, we find that living Madrepores, Millepores, 

 Astraeas, and Mseandrinas, can support " a tremendous surf;'"* 

 and indeed seem to prefer localities the most exposed to the 

 action of storms. The vital forces of the organism regulating 

 the cellular structure, which with age acquires a rocky 

 hardness, resist most triumphantly the mechanical forces, — 

 the shock of moving waters. 



In the South Pacific there is a perfect absence of coral- 

 reefs at the Galapagos and along the whole of the west coast 

 of the New Continent, notwithstanding their vicinity to the 

 numerous Atolls of the Low Islands, and the Archipelago of 

 Mendana or the Marquesas. It is true that the current of the 

 South Pacific, which washes the coasts of Chili and Peru, (and 

 whose low temperature I observed in the year 1802,) is only 

 60°. 1 Fahr., while the undisturbed water at the sides of the 

 cold current is from 81°.5 to 83°. 7 Fahr. at Punta Parima, 

 where it deflects to the west. Moreover at the Galapagos 

 there are small currents between the islands, having a tempera- 

 ture of only 5 8°. 3 Fahr. But this lower temperature does not 

 prevail further northwards along the coasts of the Pacific 

 from Guayaquil to Guatemala and Mexico, neither does it 

 prevail in the Cape de Verd Islands, on the whole west coast 

 of Africa, or at the small islands of St. Paul, St. Helena, 

 Ascension, and San Fernando Noronha ; yet in none of these 

 are there coral-reefs. 



If this absence of reefs characterises the western coasts of 

 America, Africa, and New Holland, they are, on the other 

 hand, of frequent occurrence on the eastern coasts of tropical 

 America, on the African coast of Zanzibar, and on the southern 

 coast of New South Wales. The best opportunities I have 

 enjoyed for personally examining coral banks have been in 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and south of the Island of Cuba, in the 

 so-called "Gardens of the King and Queen" (Jardines y 

 Jardinillos del Rey y de la Rey no). It was Christopher 

 Columbus himself who, on his second voyage, in May, 1494, 

 gave this name to this little group of islands, because from 

 the pleasant association of the silver-leaved arborescent Tour- 

 * Darwin, Coral Beefs, p. 63 — 65. 



