CORAL AND CORAL MAKERS. 19 
into which the coral animals may withdraw for concealment 
any more than the skeleton of a dog is its house or cell; for 
every part of the coral—or corallum as it is now called in sci- 
ence—of a polyp, in most reef-making species, is enclosed 
more or less completely within the polyp, where it was 
formed by the secreting process. 
It is not, perhaps, within the sphere of science to criticise 
the poet. Yet we may say in this place, in view of the frequent 
use of the lines 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 lit- 
tle are the coral polyps shapeless worms that “writhe and 
shrink their tortuous bodies to grotesque dimensions.” 
The poet oversteps his license, and besides devrades his 
subject, when downright false to nature. 
Coral is made by organisms of four very different kinds. 
These are: st, Potyps, the most important of coral-making 
animals, the principal source of the coral reefs of the world. 
Second, Animals related to the littie Hydra of fresh waters, 
and called Hyprorps (a division under the Acalephs), which, 
as Agassiz has shown, form the very common and often large 
corals called Millepores. 
Third, The lowest tribe of Mollusks, 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 incrusta- 
tions. Although of small importance as reef-makers at the 
