130 
THE OCEAN WOKL1). 
he considered the architectural product of the polypes. In other words, 
Beaumur introduced into Science the views which ho had keenly con- 
tested with their author. But from that time the animal nature of 
the coralline has never been doubted. 
Without pausing to note the various authors who have given their 
attention to this fine natural production, we shall at once direct our 
attention to the organization of the animalcules, and the construction 
of the coral. 
M. Lacaze-Duthiers, professor at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, 
published in 1864 a remarkable monograph, entitled “L’Histoire 
Naturelle du Corail.” This learned naturalist was charged by the 
French Government, in 1860, with a mission, having for its object the 
study of the coral from the natural history point of view. His observa- 
tions upon the zoophytes are numerous and precise, and worthy of 
the successor of Pcyssonuel ; but for close observation, practical con- 
clusions, and popular exposition, the world is more indebted to Charles 
Darwin than to any other naturalist. 
A branch of living coral, if we may use the term, is an aggregation 
of animals derived from a first being by budding. They are united 
among themselves by a common tissue, each seeming to enjoy a life of 
its own, though participating in a common object. The branch seems 
to originate in an egg, which produces a young 
animal, which attaches itself soon after its birth, 
as already described. From this is derived the 
new beings which, by their united labours, pro- 
duce the branch of coral or polypier. 
This branch is composed of two distinct parts : 
the one central, of a hard brittle and stony nature, 
the well-known coral of commerce; the other 
altogether external, like the bark of a tree, soft 
and fleshy, and easily impressed with the nail. 
This is essentially the bed of the living colony. 
The first is called the polypier, the second is 
colony of polypes. This bed (Fig. 47) is 
Po'ypes. much contracted when the water is withdrawn' 
(Lacaze-Duthiers.) ■ . - * _ , . , 
irom tne colony. It is covered with salient 
mammals or protuberances, much wrinkled and furrowed. 
Each mammal encloses a polype, and presents on its summit eight 
