ROOM III.] NATURAL HISTORY. 69 
of these, as the Lobophyllia, &c (Case 3,) the bodies 
of the different animals of the same mass, and the qells 
of the coral remain separate from each other. In a 
few, as Anthophyllum , (Case 7,) at certain intervals of 
its growth, the animals throw out an expansion which 
deposits a shelly plate that unites the different cells 
formed by each of the bodies into a common mass, though 
the cells themselves are distant from each other. But 
in very many, the bodies of the different animals of 
the same group, as they are produced, are united to¬ 
gether side by side, forming a coral with ail the cells 
united together into a globular, branched or expand¬ 
ed foliaceous mass. These forms depend on the man¬ 
ner in which the reproduction of the different individuals 
of the masses takes place, whether by the contraction 
and spontaneous division of the mouth, when the cells 
are deep and form a rounded mass, or by the develope- 
ment of buds from the sides of the parents, when the 
animal forms an expanded frond, as in Pavonia , &c. 
In some, the stomach of the animal is only provided 
with 12 slight folds, and the mouth has only 10 or 12 
tentacles. In this case the cell of the coral is provided 
with only a few slightly raised rays. Most of these animals 
live crowded together in societies forming a branched 
coral, and the cellular substance of the animal is in ge¬ 
neral not so perfectly filled with calcareous matter as in 
the former kinds; consequently the coral is of a more 
spongy or lighter texture, as in the Madrepores, Madre - 
pora, Porites, &c. (Cases 15 to 18.) 
Near these Corals must be arranged for the present, 
until their animals are better known, the Millepores {Mil- 
lepora alcicornis of Linnaeus). The latter is remarkable 
for the rapidity of its growth and the facility with which 
it expands itself over all the different anomalous objects 
that come in its way; thus we have it covering shells, 
bottles, gorgoniae, &c., and assuming the form of all the 
things it covers (Case 20). According to Mr. Nelson, 
the animal is very different from that of any other coral, 
being quadrangular, expanded at intervals into four rays, 
and destitute of any true tentacles. 
The different kinds of these animals grow and in¬ 
crease with great rapidity, forming enormous masses 
