THE COKALS. 679 



Actiniae, the body taking all imaginable hues, passing from bright 

 scarlet to leaf-green, graduating from scarlet to crimson, from crimson 

 to orange, from orange to yellow, and from yellow to green. The 

 spherical beads around its mouth are more persistent in color than 

 any other parts of the animal, being almost invariably a rich blue, 

 just like a set of turquoises placed around the disc. These, however, 



The Sea-anemones. 



are occasionally subject to change, and lose all color, looking like 

 pearls rather than turquoises. 



Leaving the sea-anemones, we now proceed to the next tribe, the 

 Carophylliacese, in which there are many tentacles, in two or more 

 series, and the cells many-rayed. Many of these beings deposit a 

 corallum, but out of our British species more than one-third are with- 

 out this chalky support. 



The Endive Coral is so called from the resemblance which its coral- 

 lum bears to the crumpled leaves of that vegetable. The animal has no 

 tentacles, and the cells are small, conical, and rather oblique. The 

 corallum is fixed, sharply edged, and expanded from the base to the 

 tip. All the living members of this pretty genus are to be found in 

 the East and West Indian seas. 



The Devonshire Cup Coral is not a very large, but it is a very 

 pretty species, the color of the corallum being generally pure trans- 

 lucent white, sometimes tinged with a delicate rosy hue, while that of 

 the living animal is pearly white, variegated with rich chestnut and the 

 palest imaginable fawn. 



In the family Oculinidse the corallum is branched and tree-like ; 



