VARIETIES OF CORAL. 131 



appropriate. In shape they imitate almost every plant which 

 grows on the land. There are branching trees, from six to 

 eight feet high, covered with starry polyp blossoms ; there 

 are shrubs of various shapes, tufts of imitation rushes, 

 pinks, feathery mosses, broad leaves studded with daisy-like 

 flowers, cacti, fungi, and lichens, in endless variety of 



Fig. 26. ONE OF THE ASTR/EA CORALS (Faria pallida). 



beauty. Some colonies grow in the shape of graceful vases, 

 which measure three or four feet across, and are composed 

 of sprigs and branches representing countless multitudes of 

 individuals. Others again, as Astraea, shape themselves by 

 common consent into solid domes, with a diameter of from 

 ten to twenty feet, which are scattered all over with stars of 

 purple or emerald-green (Fig. 26). These immense groups 

 all spring from one germ, and are so intimately connected 

 that an injury to one individual is felt by all the rest, which 



