THE FAIRY -LAND OF SCIENCE. 21 
carbonate of lime in the sea. Thus the coral animal- 
cule rears its polypidom or rocky structure in warm 
latitudes, and constructs reefs or barriers round islands. 
It is limited in range of depth from 25 to 30 fathoms. 
Chemically conshdered, coral is carbonate of lime; 
physiologically, it is the skeleton of an animal ; geo- 
graphically, it is characteristic of warm latitudes, 
especially of the Pacific Ocean." This description 
is correct, and even very fairly complete, if you 
know enough of the subject to understand it. But 
tell me, does it lead you to love my piece of coral ? 
Have you any picture in your mind of the coral 
animal, its home, or its manner of working ? 
But now, instead of trying to master this dry, hard 
passage, take Mr. Huxley's penny lecture on ' Coral 
and Coral Reefs,'* and with the piece of coral in 
your hand, try really to learn its history. You will 
then be able to picture to yourself the coral animal 
as a kind of sea-anemone, something like those which 
you have often seen, like red, blue, or green flowers, 
putting out their feelers in sea-water on our coasts, 
and drawing in the tiny sea-animals to digest them 
in that bag of fluid which serves the sea-anemone as 
a stomach. You will learn how this curious jelly 
animal can split itself in two, and so form two polyps, 
or send a bud out of its side and so grow up into a 
kind of " tree or bush of polyps," or how it can hatch 
little eggs inside it and throw out young ones from 
its mouth, provided with little hairs, by means of 
which they swim to new resting-places. You will 
* ' Manchester Science Lectures,' No. I, Second Series. John Hey- 
wood, 141, Deansgate, Manchester. 
