LECTURE ON CORAL ISLANDS 



of branches, and neatly filled with blooming sprigs ; there 

 are domes or hemispheres, sometimes nearly large enough 

 to fill one of these rooms, and yet of unblemished sym- 

 metry, and bright throughout with living colors, seem- 

 ing like the gemmed temples of the coral world ; and as 

 the forests and flowers of the land have their birds and 

 butterflies, so (as our own poet has said *) : 



life in rare and beautiful forms 

 Is sporting amid those bowers of stone. 



For fishes of azure, yellow, scarlet, and other tints, flash 

 through the waters in silent play among the branches. 

 A beautiful little species, about two inches long, of the 

 richest sky-blue, is one of the most common ; they come 

 out from the coral shrubbery in numbers together, and 

 dart back again at the least disturbance. Another kind 

 is a perfect harlequin in the arrangement of its various 

 colors. There are also active shrimps, and stealthy crabs, 

 and numerous forms of life too strange for description. 



" These different kinds of zoophytes are not all found 

 together; nor is the whole sea-bottom in the shallow 

 waters covered ; for there are large areas of coral sand, 

 and the corals are scattered, as vegetation is often scat- 

 tered over the land, here and there a clump amid regions 

 of comparative barrenness. 



" I have spoken of the flowers of the living corals. 

 You of course know that I refer to coral animals, and not 

 to true flowers. Yet the resemblance is so striking in 

 form and color that flower-animal is peculiarly an appro- 

 priate name for the polyp. It has one or more circles of 

 petal-like tentacles corresponding to the petals of an 

 aster; but at the centre of the flower there is a mouth; 

 watch him manage a piece of shell-fish, and you will soon 

 be satisfied that there is little of the flower except in the 

 shape. These polyps are very often half an inch in 

 diameter, and vary from a line or less to a foot. Thou- 

 sands of such animals are aggregated in a single coral. 

 These thousands of associated polyps have a most inti- 

 mate connection ; for they are all grown together by their 

 sides. The several animals have separate mouths and 



* The Coral Grove, by James G. Percival. 

 5 225 



