POTENTIALITIES. 333 



formerly prolific fishery for this substance in the Persian Gulf, it is particularly worthy of attention. 

 As previously mentioned, the chief market for black coral is in India, where supplies from a 

 new source would be gladly and remuneratively welcomed. The possibilit\? of finding the 

 precious red coral of commerce, Coralliimi ritbniiii, or, if not, of successfully introducing and 

 cultivating it within the Barrier limits, represents another potentiality which might be dilated 

 on to a considerable length. 



The eligibility of the ordinary reef corals, or Madreporaria, for decorative purposes has 

 been briefly advocated, in association with the descriptive account of the first plate of the 

 photo-mezzotype series, in Chapter I. There is another direction, however, in which these 

 corals, and many other of the marine organisms illustrated in this volume, represent important 

 potentialities. The direction here referred to is that of ornamental design, with relation both 

 to form and colour. For all purposes of decorative art as applied to commercial uses, the 

 coral class furnishes literally a mine of wealth. In whatever associations, such as those of 

 artistic china, tapestries, carpets, wall-papers, and figured materials of every description, wherein 

 plant life, in its natural or conventionalised form, has hitherto been the chief source of design, 

 coral-growths and allied organisms, as represented by Plates I. to X. of the chromo-lithographic 

 series included in this volume, constitute an original and practically inexhaustible field for the 

 exercise of the designer's art. 



The reason why this organic group, so rich in patterns of form and colour, has not 

 hitherto been turned to artistic account, is simply explained by the circumstance that the life 

 aspects and living tints of these organisms have, with a few exceptions, been practically 

 unknown. The selection reproduced in this volume is necessarily a very small one, in rela- 

 tion to the wealth of the varieties that remain for choice. At the same time, a single plate 

 in this series, such as Chromo IX., illustrative of the genus Madrepora alone, would furnish the 

 artistic designer with almost endless modifications of colour and contour combinations. The 

 corals delineated by this plate are necessarily only imperfect detached fragments. To minds 

 upon which this suggestion may settle and germinate, it is recommended that an acquaintance 

 be made with the complete specimens exhibited in the Natural History Museum, wherein, 

 though the evanescent life colours have passed away, the characteristic growth contours are 

 represented in their perfected state. 



With reference to the more considerable number of the potential subjects dealt with in this 

 chapter, and more especially such as relate to the collection and culture of marine produce, it it 

 scarcely necessary to remark that a number of them might be profitably concurrently developed 

 at judiciously-selected working centres. The localities conspicuously eligible for such in- 

 dustrial operations are the innumerable islets, of both coral and metamorphic formation, that dot 

 the Great Barrier area. Those islands, necessarily, that possess the advantage of permanent water 

 holes are of the greatest value ; though, as all lie within the area of a copious periodical rainfall, a 



