84 HALF AN HOUR WITH CORALLINES. 



VI. 



HALF AN HOUR WITH CORALLINES. 



IT will not be possible for the sea-side visitor who 

 has troubled himself to look for the objects already 

 mentioned, to pass over a number of objects which 

 go by the common name of Corallines. Occasionally, 

 also, they are known by the more fanciful one of 

 " sea-firs," on account of their resemblance to a 

 miniature pine. Popularly, they are regarded as a 

 kind of seaweed ; but the young zoologist will not 

 be long ere he find that they are colonies of animals, 

 and that there is connected with their life-history 

 one of the most curious and wonderful changes to be 

 met with in the whole animal kingdom. The objects 

 themselves are common enough, and are to be found 

 in every rock-pool, or clinging to the fronds and 

 steins of the larger seaweeds, or attached to the upper 

 surfaces of such large shells as the oyster. When 

 cast ashore after a storm, they are mostly dead, 

 although it is always worth your while to try them 

 in your bell-glass, unless you perceive they are 

 old and withered specimens. Examine them with a 

 common magnifying glass, and you will see they are 

 composed of a horny stem, usually jointed and hollow, 

 the hollows communicating with every part, and 

 being, in fact, the means by which the polypites 



