Apaus.— Polynesia. 49 
security and abundant food. Then the reef is penetrated by sea worms, 
and the waves are constantly washing away the lime, and dashing it on 
again, or hurling into an opening the pieces broken from a projection, and 
thus forming the eonglomerate coral rock. : 
Thus, the water charged with lime, and the millipores or cretaceous plants 
which grow on the reef, entomb in due time all the animals that sought 
shelter in the crevices, and form a cemented wall to face the ocean. These 
animali that raise such barriers against the waves, which are never at rest 
on account of the trade winds, are the lowest but one in the order of 
animals. They have the same gelatinous bodies as the sea anemone, the 
same digestive cavity, the same mode of seeking their food, and also the 
same roseate appearance when the tentacles are spread ; but in one respect 
they differ, the polypifera secrete lime, and the sea anemones donot. Some 
of the sea anemones on the shores of Chili are fully fourteen inches in 
diameter when the tentacles are spread, and some of the species are very 
beautiful. 
The many-tinted tentacles vary in color from bright green to rich 
purple; the variegated dise and mouth bears a close resemblance to a 
garden aster, but here the likeness ends, as a sea anemone or polypi is as 
much an animal as a cator a dog. 
So soon as the tentacles come in contact with prey, whether shell-fish 
or crab, or small fish, they instantly close upon it, and force the captured 
animal into the mouth, where it soon dies, and when the nutritious parts 
are extracted, the rest is rejected. The sudden death of the animal is not 
owing to the tentacles, but to concealed weapons. These are long micro- 
scopical threads which are coiled up in cells, either in the tentacles or on 
the disc, and contain poison cells. These lasso threads are shot out the 
instant the tentacles touch an object, and the effect is to destroy very 
quickly the life even of the mollusc or crab that is so unfortunate as to fall 
or be thrown on the pretty flower. The coral polyp lives in the same way, 
and is armed with the same weapons, but as his mouth is often not an 
eighth of an inch in diameter, he must be content with very small animals. 
From the mouth of the polyp numerous pear-shaped eggs float away 
through the water, just as the winged seeds of plants are wafted away by 
the wind. These eggs are furnished with long cellary appendages that 
float far behind, and bear them along ; some of these find at last a suitable 
resting place—one end becomes attached to the ground, the other becomes 
depressed, and very shortly the mouth and tentacles appear, and life is 
begun. The soft partitions in the polyp soon become hardened with the 
lime it secretes, and after increasing in bulk, the mouth gradually divides 
F 
