MODERX BRITISH CORALS. 125 



the world, have they gone on, withdrawing lime from 

 the waters of the sea, and fixing it in their tissues, till 

 not mountains or islands merely, but whole continents 

 have been formed by their debris. In the limestones of 

 many districts vast beds of fossil Madrepores are found. 

 The well-known ornaments manufactured at Torquay, 

 exhibit beautiful sections of antediluvian animals of this 

 group. The work is still in progress. Fresh beds of 

 such limestones, of unknown extent, are gradually form- 

 ing throughout the Pacific Ocean, and along the shores 

 of the great southern continent of New Holland. In our 

 British seas, very few examples of this section of Zoo- 

 phytes remain, of the multitudes which once inhabited 

 our shores ; but in the modern sea one does exist, to 

 which a considerable geological interest is attached, 

 from its being also undoubtedly found in the crag for- 

 mation. This Coral, Turbinolia Milletiana, has been 

 dredged in a living state off 

 the coast of Cornwall, and 

 off the west of Ireland ; but 

 it is very rarely found. A 

 more common species, Cary- 

 ophyllea Smithii, is found on 

 various parts of the coast. 

 It bears a miniature resem- 

 blance to the exotic Madre- 

 pores, having the same mushroom folds ; while its 

 animal, when expanded, closely resembles a common 

 Sea Anemone. 



Twenty different kinds of Actiniae, or Sea Anemones, 

 are known to British Naturalists, but probably several 



