LIFE-PROCESSES OF CORAL COLONY 103 



beast; but we cannot say that an embryo Millepora will grow 

 to be a branching M. aldcornis and not a plate-like M. com- 

 planata or M. verrucosa ; we cannot foretell that a young colony 

 of Focillopora will certainly be P. hrcvicornis and not F. nobilis 



Fig. 35. 



Millepura CuLONY OF THE Type named aldcornis. 



for, depending on the conditions of its surroundings, it might 

 chance to be either. 



This very plasticity shows itself not only within the limits 

 of a certain species, but in the life of every actinozooid, for 

 each member of a colony, or each solitary coral, shows in its 

 life, its growth, and its repair, all those endless conformations 

 to the demands of its environment which tend to produce change 

 throughout the whole world of living things. An actinozooid, 

 then, as an individual, possesses a birthright that gives it a 



