WONDERS OF THE SHORE 1367 



while, with a movement as imperceptible as that of 

 the hour hand of a watch, the tiny prey was carried 

 along between the plates to the corner of the mouth. 

 The mouth, however, moved most, and at length 

 reached the edges of the plates, gradually closed 

 upon the insect, and then returned to its usual place 

 in the centre." (Gosse.) The fact is, that the 

 Madrepore, like those glorious sea-anemones whose 

 living flowers stud every pool, is by profession a 

 scavenger and a feeder on carrion ; and being as 

 useful as he is beautiful, really comes under the rule 

 which he seems at first to break, that handsome is 

 who handsome does. 



Look now at these tiny saucers of the thinnest ivo- 

 ry, the largest not bigger than a silver threepence, 

 which contain in their centres a milk-white crust of 

 stone, pierced, as you see under the magnifier, into 

 a thousand cells, each with its living architect within. 

 Here are two kinds: in one the tabular cells radiate 

 from the centre, giving it the appearance of a tiny 

 compound flower, daisy or groundsel; in the other 

 they are crossed with waving grooves, giving the 

 whole a peculiar fretted look, even more beautiful 

 than that of the former species. They are Tubuli- 

 pora patina and Tubulipora hispida; and stay 

 break off that tiny rough red wart, and look at its 

 cells also under the magnifier: it is Cellepora pumi- 

 cosa; and now, with the Madrepore, you hold in 

 your hand the principal, at least the commonest, 

 British types of those famed coral insects which in 

 the tropics are the architects of continents and the 

 conquerors of the ocean surge. 



