42 
WEST WING. 
Parallel with the bird gallery to the north side (right on enter- 
ing), and approached by several passages, is a long narrow gallery 
Coral Gallery, containing the collection of corals and of sponges and allied forms. 
Commencing at the eastern end, some of the lowest forms of 
animal life are exhibited in the wall-case and table-cases ; they 
belong to a group called Peotozoa, and, for the greater part, 
are so minute, that they can be studied with the microscope 
only ; their structure is therefore illustrated by means of models 
and figures. The next divisions of the gallery are occupied by the 
sponges ; most conspicuous among them is a series showing the 
variations of the common bath-sponge (cases land 2), the beauti- 
ful siliceous Uuplectella or Venus' flower basket, the Japanese 
Hyalonema or glass rope sponge (case 3), and the gigantic 
Rhaphiophora or Neptune's goblet, of which several specimens 
are placed on separate stands. 
Nearly the whole of the remainder of the gallery is given up 
to the Corals, showing the immense variety of form and colour 
of these animals, some presenting a marvellous - resemblance to 
vegetable growths. The part exhibited is merely the dried, 
hard, horny or calcareous basis or supporting skeleton either of 
isolated individuals, or of colonies of creatures allied to the well- 
known sea-anemones of our coasts. The aggregated skeletons 
of myriads of these animals form the coral-reefs which con- 
stitute the base of thousands of islands in the Indo-Pacific 
Ocean. Near the middle of the gallery is placed a magnificent 
specimen of the Black Coral of the Mediterranean (Gerardia 
savalia), one of the Antipatharia, which was obtained off the 
coast of the island of Euboea in the iEgean Sea. A drawing on 
the adjoining wall shows a magnified view of the polypes of 
this species as they appear in life. In case 13 are specimens 
and drawings of the Bed Coral (Cor allium rubrum), so largely 
used for ornamental purposes, and also of the crimson Organ-pipe 
Coral (Tuhipora). Arranged on shelves on the south wall of the 
western end of this gallery, is a series of Pennatulidce (sea-pens, 
sea-rushes, or sea-ropes) preserved in spirit. They live at the 
bottom of the sea, with their lower end fixed in the sand and 
mud, and their skeleton is never more than a straight internal 
axial rod. 
Two table-cases at the western end of the gallery contain the 
