are joined together into a common branch, the result of which is the
formation of a beautiful coral tree. This is a great mass of
madrepore, and in the living state every one of the ends of these
branches was terminated by a beautiful little polype, like a sea
anemone, and all the skeleton was covered by a soft body which united
the polypes together. You must understand that all this skeleton has
been formed in the interior of the body, to suit the branched body of
the polype mass, and that it is as much its skeleton as our own bones
are our skeleton. In this next coral the creature which has formed the
skeleton has divided itself as it grew, and consequently has formed a
great expansion; but scattered all over this surface there were polype
bodies like those I previously described. Again, when this great cup
was alive, the whole surface was covered with a beautiful body upon
which were set innumerable small polype flowers, if we may so call
them, often brilliantly coloured; and the whole cup was built up in the
same fashion by the deposit of carbonate of lime in the interior of the
combined polype body, formed by budding and by fission in the way I
described. You will perceive that there is no necessary limit to this
process. There is no reason why we should not have coral three or four
times as big; and there are certain creatures of this kind that do
fabricate very large masses, or half spheres several feet in diameter.
Thus the activity of these animals in separating carbonate of lime from
the sea and building it up into definite shapes is very considerable
indeed.

Now I think I have said sufficient--as much as I can without taking you
into technical details, of the general nature of these creatures which
form coral. The animals which form coral are scattered over the seas
of all countries in the world. The red coral is comparatively limited,
but the polypes which form the white coral are widely scattered. There