494 



POLYPUS. 



in shallow waters which easily admit the light, than 

 where the immense column of water, by absorbing all 

 the luminous rays, deprives it of the energetic influ- 

 ence exerted over all animated beings by that bene- 

 ficent medium unceasingly emanating from the sun. 



Coral on the coasts of France, being perhaps better 

 chosen than in other countries, has the reputation of 

 possessing the liveliest colours and the greatest bril- 

 liancy ; that of Italy, however, rivals it in beauty; 

 on the Barbary coasts it attains greater thickness, but 

 the colour is inferior. 



Fifteen different varieties are distinguished in the 

 course of commerce ; these, from their colour and 

 degrees of beauty, obtain the several names of froth 

 of blood, flower of blood, first, second, third blood, and 

 so on. 



At Trapani in Sicily, where the principal coral 

 fishery of the island is carried on, it is managed by 

 a very ingenious and simple contrivance. To the 

 centre of a large wooden cross is fixed a stone suffi- 

 ciently ponderous to carry the cross to the bottom of 

 the water. Pieces of small strong net are tied to 

 each limb of this cross, which is poised horizontally 

 by a rope, and then let down into the sea. As soon 

 as it is felt to touch the bottom, the rope is made fast 

 to the boat, which is then rowed about over the beds 

 of coral, and the great stone breaking the branches of 

 the rocks, they become entangled in the net-work, 

 are thus secured, and wrested from their birth-right. 



CORALLINA is a plant-formed Polypdiom, articu- 

 lated, branched, and trichotomous, axis or interior 

 wholly composed of horny fibres ; rind cretaceous 

 and cellular, the cells being invisible to the naked eye. 

 , Former authors had united under the name of 

 Corallines all the flexible Polypidoms, such as the 

 Sertularia, Tubularia, &c. Later writers on the sub- 

 ject deem it advisable to reserve this denomination 

 for one order in this class of creation, a close ob- 

 servation of the various characters distinguishing the 

 order has induced a separation of them into genera, 

 and to assign particularly to one genus the appella- 

 tion of Coralline. 



The Corallines of Europe have their polypsan cells 

 so very small and so subject to obliteration, that it is 

 not extraordinary they still remain undiscovered ; in 

 the equatorial seas the cells are much larger, and 

 frequently visible to the naked eye. Lamaroux ob- 

 serves that rambling over the Calvados (a range of 

 rocks on the coast of Normandy), he frequently found 

 a very large Corallina, a variety of the C. officinalis; 

 it was covered with simple" transparent filaments, 

 which had a movement peculiar to themselves, they 

 disappeared with the slightest agitation of the water, 

 or when the Polypidom was exposed to the air ; in 

 the latter case he was never able with the strongest 

 magnifier to discover the slightest remains of these 

 filaments, the point they had been attached to, or the 

 cells they might have issued from, supposing them 

 to have been Polypi. This, however, remains doubt- 

 ful, as it was only in the spring season he ever 

 observed them, and then only a few particular indi- 

 duals. In winter he never could discover them 

 at all. 



In the Jania and Corallina are frequently observed 

 small globular bodies, more or less voluminous, and 

 varying in their substance ; the tubercles that are 

 found on the Ampluroa, Halitneda, Udotea, and Melo- 

 bosia, appear analagous. Ellis imagined them air- 

 vessels to support them in the water ; but these vesi- 



cles are rarely empty, they have even been found 

 quite solid or filled with small grains of an unknown 

 nature. They are more probably ovaria, enclosing 

 the germs of future Pttlypidoms, and indeed all the 

 flexible species appear thus to multiply. 



The 1'olypidoins, to which the generic name of 

 Corallina is reserved, have always articulated steins, 

 more or less compressed, more or less branched, and 

 constantly trichotomous. Their colours, when fresh, 

 generally incline to red or purple ; exposed a very 

 short time to the atmospheric action, light and hu- 

 midity, they display a variety of prismatic hues, each 

 more brilliant than the other, from the lightest and 

 most brilliant rose-colour to a dull brown, greenish, 

 or only with a tinge of red ; infinite gradations are 

 observable, but they all become bleached in the air. 



Polypidoms of this genus are found in all latitudes, 

 at every depth, and on all the coasts of the principal 

 divisions of the world. They are, however, larger 

 in the equatorial seas, more brilliant in their hues, 

 and more elegant in their form. Fixed usually on 

 rocks, or other hard and almost immoveable ;Siib- 

 stances, they resist the influence of the waves, and 

 are very rarely detached from their bases or cast on 

 shore. Only one or two species of Coralline are parasites 

 on the Thalassiophytes,vih\\&\, nearly the whole of the 

 Janias are found upon these vegetables. 



Corallines vary but little in their height ; they some- 

 times exceed, but seldom, four inches, and arc in 

 general less. 



The Corallina ojficinalis was formerly used as an 

 anthelminthic or worm-destroying medicine, but at 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century it seemed 

 nearly to have fallen into disuse in France ; at a later 

 period it was again brought into vogue from the 

 reputation of the Fucus helyiinlhocorton, vulgarly 

 called moss of Corsica, whose properties seem to be 

 of the same nature, and a chemical analysis of the 

 Corallina ojficinalis does not very essentially differ. 



In the Philosophical Transactions, Mr. Hatchet 

 gives the following account of his chemical experi- 

 ments on what he terms Zoophytes. He says Madre- 

 pores and Millepores (like several of the shells) are 

 formed of a gelatinous and inembranaceous substance 

 hardened by carbonate of lime, the difference con- 

 sisting only in the mode in which these materials are 

 combined ; that in the Tubipora, Fliistra, and Coral- 

 Una, some phosphate of lime is mixed with the car- 

 bonate ; that in the Isu, the basis is a regularly 

 organised, membranaceous, cartilaginous, and horny 

 substance, hardened by carbonate of lime, one species 

 only, the Isis ochracea, yielding also a small propor- 

 tion of phosphate of lime. That the hardening sub- 

 stance of the Isis nobilis red coral, is likewise 

 carbonate of lime with a small portion of phosphate ; 

 but that the matter forming the membranaceous basis 

 consists of two parts, the interior being gelatinous 

 and the external a complete membrane, so formed as 

 to cover the stem in the manner of a sheath or tube. 

 The other Gorgoniee consist of a horny stem coated 

 by a membrane, which is hardened by carbonate of 

 lime. Sponges are of a nature similar to the horny 

 stems of the Gorgoni<, and only differ from these and 

 from each other by the quality of the texture. And, 

 lastly, that the Alcyonm are likewise composed of a 

 soft flexible membranaceous substance very similar to 

 the cortical part of some of the Gorgoniee, and in like 

 manner somewhat hardened by carbonate slightly 

 mixed with phosphate of Hue. 



