78 THEIR DOINGS. 



largest members of the group, the Sea Anemones, -whose 

 flower-like bodies are seen expanded in every rock -pool 

 left by the tide. The little Polypes which dwelt iu the 

 cells of the Flustra were animals of a something similar 

 form, though different structure, each crowned with a 

 star-like flower; and the whole together exhaled an 

 odour, when fresh, compared by some observers to that 

 of the orange, by others to that of violets, and, again, 

 to a mixture of the odour of roses and geranium.* 

 The sea has its gardens as well as the land, and their 

 denizens more wonderful, for the flowers of the sea 

 enjoy animal life. 



It is common, in speaking of coral-banks and islands, 

 to attribute the formation of these vast submarine de- 

 posits to the work of the Polypes, and to extol the in- 

 dustry of the little creatures in building up monuments 

 whose vastness leaves the pyramids an immeasurable 

 distance behind. And, in some sense indeed, coral- 

 islands are their work ; but scarcely in a higher sense 

 than peat-bogs may be said to be the work of mosses, or 

 the coal-fields those of other classes of vegetables. In 

 speaking of coral-islands as the work of the Polypes, we 

 lose sight of the fact that the island itself is one vast 

 polypidom, all whose living parts have, in the aggre- 

 gate, as much individuality so far as they consist of a 

 single species as the polypidom of the Flustra we have 

 been examining. In coral-banks several species unite 

 together, and each, of course, preserves its individuality; 

 but it is quite conceivable to suppose a single species, 

 forming a single mass, and gradually constituting a 

 * See Johnston's Brit. Zoop. 2nd Edit., p. 342-3. 



