HEPRODUCTIVI^ rOW£JB OF THE POLYP. 101 



tree, or sever the limb of an animal, these parts will wither 

 and decompose by passing into other parts of matter. Cut 

 a tree carelessly, and its natural symmetry is disfigured ; or 

 slit it down its centre, it is destroyed. Animals thus treat- 

 ed die, with the exception of the polyp, for it will put 

 forth new limbs, form a new head or tail, and, if divided, be- 

 come two separate existences. 



If a polyp be cut in two, the fore part, which contains 

 the head and mouth and arms, lengthens itself, creeps, and 

 eats on the same day. The tail part forms a new bead and 

 mouth; at the wounded end shoot forth arms; if turned 

 inside out the parts at once accommodate themselves to these 

 new conditions. If the body were cut into ten pieces, every 

 portion would become a new perfect living animal. A polyp 

 has been cut lengthways at seven in the morning, and in 

 eight hours afterwards, each part had devoured a worm as 

 long as itself I How astonishing it is to see a creature so 

 apparently frail in structure, possessing the actions, sensa- 

 tions, and powers of higher organized beings ! The stomach 

 is without membrane or cell ; the outside surface-cells form 

 a kind of double skin, and the inside consists of a wall of 

 cells running crosswise, with a velvet-like surface, being red 

 or brown grains held together by a sort of gluey substance. 



These minute builders of the ocean rocks make their 

 habitations, and form the wonderful coral groves and islands, 

 sometimes hundreds of miles in extent. 



The various species of these animals appear to be fur- 

 nished with glands containing gluten, converting the carbo- 

 nate of lime which is in the ocean, and other earthy matters, 

 into a fixed and hard substance, twisted — as may be ob- 

 served in coral — in every variety of shape. 



If a piece of coral be examined with the microscope, it 

 will be seen to be covered with a multitude of small pits, which 

 are cells of the most beautiful construction, made with the 

 greatest regularity, and in such a manner that the most ex- 



