CORALS AND CORAL MAKERS. 3 



It is not, perhaps, within the sphere of science to criticise the 

 poet. Yet we may say in this place, in view of tlie frequent 

 use of the Hnes even by scientific men, that more error in the 

 same compass could scarcely be found than in the part of 

 Montgomery's "Pelican Island" relating to coral formations. 

 The poetry of this excellent author is good, but the facts nearly 

 all errors — if literature allows of such an incongruity. There 

 is no "toil," no " skill," no " dwelling," no " sepulchre " in the 

 coral plantation any more than in a flower-garden ; and as little 

 are the coral polyps shapeless worms that " writhe and shrink 

 their tortuous bodies to grotesque dimensions." 



The poet oversteps his license, and besides degrades his 

 subject, when downright false to nature. 



Coral is made by organisms of four very different kinds. These 

 are : First^ Polyps, the most important of coral-making animals, 

 the principal source of the coral reefs of the world. 



Second, Animals related to the little Hydra of fresh waters, 

 and called Hydroids (a division under the Acalephs), which, 

 as Agassiz has shown, form the very common and often large 

 corals called Millepores. 



Thh'd, The lowest tribe of MoUusks, called Bryozoans, which 

 produce delicate corals, sometimes branching and moss-like 

 (whence the name from the Greek for moss animal), and at 

 other times in broad plates, thick masses, and thin incrustations. 

 Although of small importance as reef-makers at the present time, 

 in a former age of the world — the Paleozoic — they so abounded 

 over the sea bottom that some beds of limestone are half com- 

 posed of them. 



Fourth, Algai or sea-weeds, some kinds of which would hardly 

 be distinguished from corals, except that they have no cells or 

 pores. 



I. POLYPS. 



A good idea of a polyp may be had from comparison with 

 the garden aster ; for the likeness to many of them in external 

 form as well as delicacy of colouring is singularly close. The 



