THE IMMORTAL POLYPE. 63: 



duction. The coral-making colonies are again divided 

 into two groups, viz., (1) in which the individual polypes 

 are of equal value in the process of multipHcation ; (2) 

 in which there are certain specialised polypes in which 

 alone the process of budding occurs. 



The specimen which we had hold of belonged to the 

 second group ; that is to say, there were certain dominant 

 polypes in it which had gone on budding and throwing 

 off new and younger polypes from the very commence- 

 ment of the hfe of the colony ; which w^ere still in a position 

 to create, and which would go on creating younger genera- 

 tions until the destruction of the whole colony or their 

 own accidental death. These specialised polypes differed 

 from all the rest in being larger, and in being symmetrical ; 

 and it was perfectty easy to identify them in the specimen 

 which we had secured from the still water beneath our 

 rock. They were situated at the very ends (growing 

 points) of the branches, and were the most ancient and 

 hoary members of the whole colony. Every now and 

 then they produce, in addition to the ordinary incon- 

 spicuous and non-oreative polypes, individuals hke unto 

 themselves, which may, under certain circumstances,, 

 start new branches. It therefore follows that some of 

 these dominant apical zooids " (as Mr. Wood- Jones 

 calls them), must he a great age, for there seems to be no 

 limit to the duration of their life, except from accidental 

 circumstances. It also follows that if the colony has 

 been allowed to grow under absolutely favourable con- 

 ditions, one of these zooids, which started it, must be older 

 than all the rest — an ancient venerable ancestor whose 

 age must be reckoned in years, and which would stand 

 alone in royal isolation at the very top of this ancestral 

 madreporian tree. 



These facts, which bear on the subject of the potentially 

 immortal nature of the coral polype and its method of 

 growth, when entirely free from accidental disturbance, 

 are so utterly at variance with preconceived notions, 

 as to make the study of corals and coral islands even still 



