CORALS. 131 



the case of our little Coral : Caryophyllea Smithii mighty 

 ill fact, be described as a Sea- Anemone with a bony skeleton ; 

 and the description would be almost correct. 



In the Aquarium, with their scalloped scarlet fringes, 

 their delicate salmon-tinted filaments and membranes, their 

 purple -bodied and white-headed tentacles, and their sym- 

 metrical skeletons, they present very pleasing and flower- 

 like objects when viewed in themselves ; but they become 

 far more interesting when we see in them the simple and 

 humble representatives of those wonderful structures to 

 which we have alluded. Mr. Gosse, in detailing the cir- 

 cumstances under which his first living specimens were ob- 

 tained, observes that they were all fixed either on upright 

 or overhanging surfaces, and in no case with their faces 

 upwards. This might have afforded a lesson to the keepers 

 of Aquaria, who should have fixed their specimens in a 

 similar manner. The specimens might have been brought 

 attached to their pieces of stone, and the pieces fixed in 

 the required position. Perhaps, if the habits indicated by 

 Nature were followed more faithfully in Aquarian arrange- 

 ments, we might see the characters of these and many other 

 water- animals more fully developed. The following is Mr. 

 Gosse^s account of his Coral-siatherins'. 



