88 GLAUCUS ; OR, 



" Doubtless you are familiar witli the stony 

 skeleton of our Madrepore, as it appears in 

 museums. It consists of a number of thin 

 calcareous plates standing up edgewise, and ar- 

 ranged in a radiating manner round a low cen- 

 tre. A little below tlie margin, their individu- 

 ality is lost in the deposition of rough calcareous 

 matter. . . . The general form is more or less 

 cylindrical, commonly wider at the top than just 

 above the bottom. . . . This is but the skeleton ; 

 and though it is a very pretty object, those who 

 are acquainted with it alone can form but a 

 very poor idea of the beauty of the living ani- 

 mal. . . . Let it, after being torn from the rock, 

 recover its equanimity ; then you will see a 

 pellucid gelatinous flesh emerging from between 

 the plates, and little exquisitely formed and 

 colored tentacula, with white clubbed tips frin- 

 ging the sides of the cup-shaped cavity in the 

 centre, across which stretches the oval disc 

 marked with a star of some rich and brilliant 

 color, surrounding the central mouth, a slit with 

 white crenated lips, like the orifice of one of 

 those elegant cowry-shells which we put upon 

 our mantelpieces. The mouth is always more 

 or less prominent, and can be protruded and 



