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cast; under such circumstances it erects its body often to the 

 extent of more than a centimetre, its beautiful crown of tenta- 

 cles unfolds, and when thousands of these animals are close to- 

 gether and all expanded, they look like a precious orange-co- 

 loured velvet carpet. But when the sky is bright, they draw 

 in their tentacles, shrink up and look very insignificant. Even 

 when expanded there is nothing to be seen of their skeleton; 

 it is only when they are dead and decayed that it becomes 

 visible, shaped like a honeycomb , the cells of which are filled 

 with radiating partitions. An attentive observer will find these 

 whitish skeletons here and there in the tanks. 



Many parts on the coasts of Italy are covered by this coral, 

 and anyone who makes the beautiful trip from Amalfi to Sca- 

 ricatoio in a boat will see the rocks covered just below the 

 water-line with these yellow creatures. The mighty reefs or 

 atolls found in tropical seas are formed of similar corals, and 

 are often many miles in extent and hundreds of fathoms thick. 

 The colour of these reefs is most beautiful. 



The branches of the coral are produced by certain peculiar 

 propagating processes, scientifically distinguished as partition 

 and budding. In the process of partition an organism splits in- 

 to two or more parts , each of which develops into a perfect 

 animal. The process has been often observed and even artificially 

 induced by cutting a living animal into several pieces. These 

 grow and each gradually becomes an entire polype. A similar 

 thing happens with the coral polypes, but with this important 

 difference, that the partition (natural , not induced) does not 

 extend quite to the base of the animal, but the divided parts 

 remain connected at a certain point. They secrete a calcareous 

 substance which naturally remains connected , and thus , in 

 the course of centuries, are formed those immense coral reefs 

 or islands mentioned above. The second and more rapid pro- 

 cess is budding. In this operation the generating organism re- 

 mains intact, but at one part of it there commences a process 

 of growth by which a second organism is produced , which , 

 however, in the corals, does not separate from the first, but 

 remains connected with the parent organism. Now all these 

 organs are partly supported, partly enveloped, by the varico- 

 loured calcareous skeleton which they themselves have secre- 

 ted, and which often look like trees or large fungi such as 

 one sees on the bark of real trees, or like bushes. But of wha- 

 tever shape or colour they may be, it must always be remem- 

 bered that these skeletons are not the animals themselves, but 



