490 THE MICROSCOPE. 



lateral plates, or transverse partitions, placed at regular dis- 

 tances; in this manner large masses, consisting of a congeries 

 of pipes or tubes, are formed. When^the animals are 

 alive, each tube contains a polype of a beautiful bright- 

 green colour, and the upper part of the surface is covered 

 with a gelatinous mass, formed by a confluence of the 

 polypes. This species occurs in great abundance on the 

 coasts of New South Wales, of the Eed Sea, and of the 

 Molucca Islands, varying in colour from a bright red to a 

 deep orange. It grows in large hemispherical masses, from 

 one to two feet in circumstance, which first appear as 

 small specks adhering to a shell or rock ; as they increase, 

 the tubes resemble a group of diverging rays, and at length 

 other tubes are produced on the transverse plates, thus 

 filling up the intervals, and constituting one uniform 

 tubular mass ; the surface being covered with a green 

 fleshy substance beset with stellate polypes. 



Dr. Dana, who devoted much time to the examination 

 of the corals of the Pacific, thus writes of their diversities 

 of form and character : " Trees of coral are well known ; 

 and, although not emulating in size the oaks of our forests 

 for they do not exceed six or eight feet in height they 

 are gracefully branched, and the whole surface blooms with 

 coral polypes in place of leaves and flowers. Shrubbery, 

 turfts of rushes, beds of pinks, and feathery mosses, are 

 most exactly imitated. Many species spread out in broad 

 leaves or folia, and resemble some large-leaved plant just 

 unfolding ; when alive, the surface of each leaf is covered 

 with polype flowers. The cactus, the lichen, clinging to 

 the rock, and the fungus in all its varieties, have their 

 numerous representatives. Besides these forms imitating 

 vegetation, there are gracefully-modelled vases, some of 

 which are three or four feet in diameter, made up of a 

 network of branches and branchlets and sprigs of flowers. 

 There are also solid coral hemispheres like domes among 

 the vases and shrubbery, occasionally ten or even twenty 

 feet in diameter, whose symmetrical surface is gorgeously 

 decked with polype-stars of purple and emerald green." 



Nothing can be more impressive than the manner in 

 which these diminutive creatures carry out their stupen- 

 dous undertakings, which we denominate instinct, intelli 



