& 
186 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
two feet in height. The polyps are provided with a great number of 
tentacula, in the centre of which the mouth is placed; they are 
deeply buried in the cells. Peyssonnel, who had seen the polyps 
forming one of such a colony, says: “I may observe that the ex- 
tremities or summits of the branching madrepore, the species in 
question, which in the Provencal we call ‘sea-fennel,’ is soft and 
tender, filled with a glutinous and transparent mucous substance, 
similar to that which the snail leaves on its path. These extremities 
Fig 6¢.—Dendrophyllia ramea Os Blainville). Fig. 70.—A part magnified. 
Naturai size, with polypi. 
are of a fine yellow colour, five or six lines in diameter ; soft, and 
more than a finger’s breadth in length. I have seen the animal 
nestling in them ; it seemed to be a species of cuttle-fish or sea-nettle. 
The body of this sea-nettle must have filled the centre; the head 
being in the middle, surrounded by many feet or claws, like those of 
the cuttle-fish. The flesh of this animal is very delicate, and is easily 
reduced to the form of a paste, melting almost under the touch.” 
The madrepores abound in all intertropical seas, taking a con- 
siderable part in the formation of the reefs which form the coral and 
madreporic islands so conspicuous in the three oceans. The tree- 
like Dendrophyllia (D. ramea, Figs. 68, 69, and 70) have cells of con- 
