12 



CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



branch out as do the horns of a stag, or still more deli- 

 cately into fine tendrils like a plant ; and there are 

 great numbers of gorgeously col- 

 ored sea fans. The sea fans form 

 the shrubbery of this ocean gar- 

 den ; they stand on the sea bot- 

 tom on a sort of root, and, unlike 

 the leaf and branching corals, 

 which are rigid and motionless, 

 they rise and fall lightly in the 

 water and wave in the gentle un- 

 dercurrents as if stirred by a 

 breeze. They are of many colors, 

 and mingled, as they are, with a 

 sort of vegetable coral called coral- 

 line, and with the bright purple, carmine red, and 

 orange-colored sponges of the Florida coast, you may 

 well realize in looking at them how surpassingly beau- 

 tiful are the flower gardens of the sea. 



Hydroids. 



CORAL POLYPS. 



HOW THEY GROW. 



It is to give some idea of the appearance of a field 

 of growing coral in its natural condition that the fore- 

 going description has been written ; but the individ- 

 ual coral animal, and the home it makes for itself, in 

 so doing contributing its mite to the building up of 



