66 



ZOOPHYTES. 



jured. Or, if fixed upon a piece of dead coral-rock, where it will not 

 be disturbed, it attaches itself, in a short time, at base, to the rock, 

 and becomes the germ of a future clump or tree. 



D. ON THE MODES OF BUDDING AND THEIR CONNEXION WITH THE 

 MODES OF GROWTH. 



64. In the preceding pages it has been explained, that budding- 

 polyps may have either an acrogenous or a prolate mode of increase, 

 or that the two modes may be combined; arid also that buds may be 

 either lateral or terminal in other words, inferior or superior ; and, 

 farther, that the new polyps may be united to the parent at base only, 

 or segregately ; or they may be united by their lateral tissues also, 

 that is, aggregately. 



The distinction of inferior and superior buds, is of fundamental im- 

 portance, and may receive separate consideration. The latter charac- 

 terize the Astrsea tribe of zoophytes, and the former, all other species. 

 I. INFERIOR OR LATERAL BUDDING. 



1. Lateral budding, without acrogenous growth, in the polyps. 



65. When the bud proceeds from the base of the polyp, and in 

 lines, the form represented in the following figures* may result. In 

 the Aulopora, of which figure 25 represents the corallum of a recent 



Fig. 25. 



Fig. 26. 



Zoanthus Ellisii. 



Aulopora filiformis. 



species, the polyp sends out a root-like tubular fibre from its base, 

 which, after creeping along over the supporting rock to a certain 

 distance, sends up a bud, a young polyp, which becomes, after 



* See tab. 1, figures 1 and 2, of the Natural History of Zoophytes, by Ellis and 

 Solander, from which the above figure of the Zoanthus Ellisii is taken. 



The Aulopora encrusts dead coral. The corallum is a delicate red tube, with small 

 round cells at intervals, from which the polyps expanded themselves when alive. 



