ON THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORAL-REEFS OF ENGLAND. 201 
among the enormous number of recent corals displayed in 
the British Museum of Natural History, and the number of 
fossil corals figured or described in the sumptuous publica- 
tions of the Paleeontographical Society*, there is no appear- 
ance whatever of any change or transformation from one 
species to another. ‘The imaginary lines of descent, some- 
times glibly laid down, so flattering and so fascinating to 
young philosophers, have no counterpart nor foundation in 
Nature. 
The beautiful and often slender marks which divide the 
species from each other are more permanent and rigid than 
steel. To attempt to gloss over this absolute differentiation 
appears to me to be a task rather of the imagination than of 
science. 
We haye before noticed that coral-life burst upon the 
stage all at once; it continued in existence from that epoch 
until to-day. 
The present reef-corals are classed by zoologists as all 
entirely different in species from the fossil corals; the 
fossil corals of each stratum differ, too, from those of others. 
We see at once that there has been frequent change, and it 
may be said progress in form, but not evolution. In order 
to be more fully persuaded of this, we will examine the sub- 
ject more closely, for at a little distance the pyramid of 
life (which is arranged like some of the Egyptian pyramids 
in a gigantic staircase), looks like a smooth inclined plane, 
and it is not until we get near enough that we see the 
distinct steps. One of the leading differences is in the case 
of the Paleozoic corals, in which the vertical divisions are 
arranged in four plates and in multiples of four, whereas in 
the modern the plates are six, or multiples of six. This is 
- constant, and not a mere variation, for there has been no 
recurrence to the old type. 
The amplitude of the lists of Silurian species, and the great 
number of localities quoted, give pretty full evidence that 
the search for intermediate forms between existing fossils and 
some supposititious ancestor is a hopeless pursuit. 
Nor can we find ancestors of the modern or of the Paleozoic 
corals in rocks still older than the latter; for, if we could 
throw back the creation of corals into the previous Laurentian 
age, and if we then found them in myriads, and traced them 
back even to the Hozoon, we should find no pedigree with any 
pretensions to minute verification or proof. 
* Edwards and Haimes’ and Duncan’s Fossil Corals. 
