VARIETIES OF CORAL. 18:\ 



or colony of polyps. The supposed crust is simply 

 the newest part, and as it has not acquired tho 

 consistency of the interior mass, it is not capable 

 of being utilised commercially. The polypi are 

 lodged in the little cavities or hollows of that 

 crust, which they secrete, an 1 which serves them for 

 support. 



10. Coral chic'tly found in the Mediterraneon Sea — Various speeiea 

 of Coral — The Coral Fishery — Antipathus, conunouly called 

 Black Coral. 



The coral of which we are here to speak is that 

 beautiful production of the seas with which ladies are 

 familiar among their elegant articles of hijouterie, not 

 the masses which form coral reefs in the Pacific 

 Ocean. It is found in the Me literranean chiefly, but 

 also in the Red Sea. Its chief habitats are in the 

 neighbourhood of Marseille's, on the coasts of Corsica^ 

 Sardinia, Sicily, the Balearic Isles, and near Tunis 

 and La Calle. The last-mentioned locality has for a 

 long time supi)lied the greater part of the coral of 

 commerce. It is fixed to the rocks by an enlarge- 

 ment of its base. The fishers state that its dimen- 

 sions grow less in proportion as the depth at which it 

 is found increases. It is generally fished in com- 

 paratively shallow waters, ranging from ten to fifty 



