40 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



calycles empty; and it might then be supposed that the 

 zoophyte is dead and only its skeleton remains. But this is 

 not necessarily so, and a closer inspection may convince us 

 that the organism is alive. In spring it will furnish its 

 calycles with new polypites, and all will go merrily again. At 

 certain seasons buds of a peculiar structure are formed, which 

 develop into polypites, whose function it is to produce eggs, 

 instead of catching and digesting food for the colony. These 

 are known as gonophorcs, and sometimes they remain where 

 they were produced, simply bursting to discharge their con- 

 tents. In other cases they detach themselves from the parent 

 colony at a certain stage in their development, and float off, 

 having all the appearance of minute jelly-fishes. Some of 

 these, instead of remaining small, attain an enormous size, so 

 that it is difficult to credit their origin to the so-called coralline 

 upon which they were produced, and of which in turn they are 

 really the egg-bearers. The eggs they scatter will develop 

 into plant-like growths such as they were produced by ; from 

 the edge of their jelly-umbrella and from its handle, buds are 

 given off, which open as jelly-fish like itself. 



Growth proceeds rapidly among these creatures, and if a 

 balk of timber be immersed in the sea, it is not long ere there 

 is a fine forest in miniature upon its surface, and that forest 

 w r ill consist of some of these corallines. The species are 

 generally distributed along our coasts, but a few are local. 

 Thus the finest of all the British species of Sertularia Dipha- 

 sia pinnata is found only on the coasts of Devon and Corn- 

 wall, where most other species attain their maxima of beauty 

 and luxuriance. Its relative, Diphasia alata, as well as Caly- 

 cella fastigiata and Aglaophenia tubitlifera, have been found 

 in Britain, only in Cornwall, Shetland, the Hebrides, and on 

 the west coast of Scotland. On the other hand, certain species 

 belong to the north, and such species as Salacia abietina, the 

 Sea-fir, and Sertularia tricuspidata are not found on our shores 

 below the north-east coast. Sertularia fusca is similarly con- 



