CORAL. 113 
white coral. The structure of the two stems, however, is very 
different; but this is only revealed by a lens. The two drawings 
given here sufficiently show their apparent difference. 
Every coral, whether true or false, is the manufacture of in- 
numerable little workers, who are both clever and active, and is the 
result of a most wonderful combination of power and skill. Horn 
and marble are indispensable to the completion of their fabric ; 
MAGNIFIED SECTION OF THE STEM OF THE RED CORAL. 
these they use in common with other animal fabricators; but they 
alone make of them branches and stems. 
After what has been said of the corals, we may conclude that 
the polypiers resemble plants more than they do animals. For 
this reason is it that they are called soophytes, that is, azzmat- 
plants, a term which has of late been applied to a great number of 
marine invertebrata. This remarkable structure forms a curious 
connecting link between the two great kingdoms of nature. 
We find in these animals, just as we do in vegetables, stalks 
and branches covered with real bark ; but the stems or axes of the 
I 
