190 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



such a failing, may be found in the fact that so many 

 persons have in these latter days habituated them- 

 selves, not only to cultivate the use of the microscope, 

 but also to carry it with them, in their holiday 

 excursions to the sea-side, and that such persons 

 desire, above all things, abstracted and compact 

 information on marine objects (as well as many 

 other subjects) which shall introduce them fairly, not 

 only to the common, but some of the uncommon 

 objects of the seaside, or the nearest representatives 

 that they can procure of the inhabitants of the 

 tropical seas. Those who cannot collect the living 

 " sea-fans " of warmer climes will not be disgusted, or 

 discontented, with their humble cousins, the " dead 

 man's fingers" of our own shores. 



The Tubiporine, or Organ-pipe coral, is a favourite 

 object in all museums and collections of marine 

 productions, and is of interest as belonging to this 

 section, although of such diverse external appear- 

 ance, consisting of a great number of hard purple-red 

 tubes, about the thickness of a straw, standing nearly 

 parallel to each other, like miniature organ-pipes, and 

 united at short distances by thin plates of the same 

 coral-like substance (fig. 36). The horny axis of the 

 sea-fans is absent, but is compensated for by the 

 rigid tubes, which appear to be formed gradually at 

 the upper end, by the deposition and consolidation 

 of the calcareous spicules secreted by the animals. 



