ANIMAL-PLANTS AND SEA-WEEDS 119 



becoming a single polype, and then producing 

 buds, from which each newly formed polype again 

 buds. So in due course the parent stem grows 

 and branches, until we get the structures that we 

 have been considering. 



We are here dealing with the zoophytes collec- 

 tively without regard for their relationship to each 

 other in modern zoological classification, although 

 some of those which we have noticed are much 

 more highly organised than others. And, before 

 leaving the corals, I may notice that the hard red 

 coral of necklaces, and the "coral and bells" of 

 teething infants, are but the work of other zoo- 

 phytes, from the depths of the Mediterranean. 

 When brought up from the bottom of the sea this 

 hard stem is incrusted with just a film of living 

 matter. The slightest rough handling will remove 

 it ; yet the solid red coral was entirely formed by 

 this incrusting film, which consists of soft jelly-like 

 polypes. If we examine the hard core in section, 

 we see plainly that it was once a slender rod 

 gradually increased in thickness by additional 

 layers secreted by the tiny inhabitants of its outer 

 surface. For the sake of the beauty alone of 

 their work these small living wonders are well 

 worthy of our consideration ; and, in addition, 

 there is the legacy of usefulness left by their 

 ancestors. Much of the beautv of our native 



