74 



LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FOE MS. 



film of gelatinous flesh, so tightly stretched as to be 

 reduced to an invisible tenuity. 



In these massive or arborescent. Corals, each single pit 

 must be considered as the habitation of a single animal ; 

 and the whole body bears the same relation to the little 

 simple Madrepores of the European seas, as the compound 

 Laomedea, with its numerous branches and cells, bears to 

 the solitary Hydra. The elegant Coral that studs the 

 rocks of Devonshire and Cornwall (Cyaihina Smithii) is an 

 instructive example of the simple species. It consists of 

 a stony cylinder or inverted cone, the summit of which, 

 hollowed into a shallow cup, is formed by the edges of 

 thin plates that radiate towards the centre. While in its 

 native element, a pellucid gelatinous flesh emerges from 

 between the plates, sometimes rising to the height of an 

 inch above their level ; exquisitely formed and coloured 

 tentacles fringe the sides of the cup-shaped cavity, across 

 which stretches the oral disk, marked with a star of some 

 rich and brilliant colour surrounding the central mouth, 

 — a slit with white crenated lips, like the orifice of one of 

 those elegant cowry- shells that we put upon our mantel- 

 pieces. 



In this condition the affinity between a Madrepore and 

 an Actinia is seen to be very close. Indeed, if we imagine 

 calcareous particles to be deposited on the surfaces of 

 the radiating membranous partitions of the latter, we 

 should have the stony plates, and the Actinia would be in 

 every essential point turned into a Corah The habits 

 and economy of the two forms coincide exactly, except 

 that the Madrepore is permanently attached to the rock 

 by the adhesion of its stony skeleton, while the attach- 



