ALCYONIUM. 



115 



and after leading a dull, inactive, colourlesa 

 existence for a week or two, fairly died, and left 

 me nothing but its skeleton as a memorial. 



The madrepore may be found adhering to, and 

 in fact almost forming part of, the rocks, requir- 

 ing the aid of a strong knife to detach it without 

 injury. The specimen represented in the en- 

 graving is rather larger than the general run, and 

 only exhibits the tips of the tentacles, and the 

 expanded membrane that edges the calcareous 

 plates. When the creature is dead, or alarmed, 

 the arrangement of these plates is plainly "risible, 

 reminding the bystanders of a reversed mush- 

 room suddenly petrified. 



There is a certain substance often found on the 

 shore, tough, soft, fleshy, and unprepossessing, 

 well deserving the popular name that is given 

 to it, namely "dead man's fingers," or "dead 

 man's toes," as the case may be. For, just as 

 the smooth anemone when touched collapses into 

 a shapeless lump of green jelly; as the "crass" 

 shrinks into the sand, an almost undistinguishable 

 and unrecognisable excrescence ; as the madrepore 

 retires within its own chalky walls, so does this 

 zoophyte withdraw all its beauties in the un- 

 congenial conditions of heat and drought, and 

 only present an exterior anything but agreeable 



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