ak THE WORLD OF. THE SEA. 
zoophytes are horny or calcareous, while those of the vegetables are 
herbaceous and woody. In each case the tissue is more or less 
solid, striated, or fluted, and formed of concentric layers; and, 
moreover, the cortex of the coral is spongy and somewhat soft, 
like the bark of a vegetable production. The knobs represent 
the buds, the polypes the flowers; the feelers open themselves 
out in rosettes as petals, forming an animated corolla, which 
opens and shuts alternately. in the polypier, the individuals 
which contribute to the growth of the whole are situated at the 
extremities of the axis, or upon its sides, a position similar to 
that of the leaves and flowers ina plant. 
And the final resemblance is found in their modes of re- 
producing their species. The corals and the vegetables are each 
produced by isolated and individual grains, eggs, and seeds, 
which separate themselves from a bunch and proceed to develop 
themselves, producing a colony of which the members remain 
grouped, 
The principal seat of the coral fishery is at the entrance of the 
Adriatic Gulf, in the neighbourhoods of Bona and Calle, and 
also in the Straits of Bonifacio. In this occupation many people 
are engaged. Upon the Sicilian coast the process is very simple : 
three or four fishers from a boat, cast into the ssea a drae 
made of two pieces of wood lashed tightly together in the form of 
across; at each of the four extremities is attached a strong net, 
which is looped up to the centre of the cross, where there is a 
heavy stone by which the drag is sunk and kept down on the 
surface of the rocks, along which it is slowly swept by a rope from 
the boat, which is gently rowed by the fishers over the places where 
the coral grows. The polypiers get entangled in the meshes of the 
net, break, and so are brought to the surface. Sometimes another 
species of drag is employed: an iron hoop which forms the 
mouth of a smail sack, destined to receive the broken branches of 
coral, is fastened to the end of a long pole, and by this means 
crevices in the rock are fished into, which the cross-bar drag 
is unable to penetrate. In other places they use poles, at the 
extremities of which bundles of tow are fastened ; these are sunk 
by a cannon ball and dragged along the bottom; in the rear is a 
