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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
80
[Picture:
Plate
5:
Balanophyllea
Regia
etc.]
Next,
what
are
those
bright
little
buds,
like
salmon-coloured
Banksia
roses
half
expanded,
sitting
closely
on
the
stone?
Touch
them;
the
soft
part
is
retracted,
and
the
orange
flower
of
flesh
is
transformed
into
a
pale
pink
flower
of
stone.
That
is
the
Madrepore,
Caryophyllia
Smithii
(Plate
V.
fig.
2);
one
of
our
south
coast
rarities:
and
see,
on
the
lip
of
the
last
one,
which
we
have
carefully
scooped
off
with
the
chisel,
two
little
pink
towers
of
stone,
delicately
striated;
drop
them
into
this
small
bottle
of
sea-water,
and
from
the
top
of
each
tower
issues
every
half-second—
what
shall
we
call
it?—
a
hand
or
a
net
of
finest
hairs,
clutching
at
something
invisible
to
our
grosser
sense.
That
is
the
Pyrgoma,
parasitic
only
(as
far
as
we
know)
on
the
lip
of
this
same
rare
Madrepore;
a
little
“cirrhipod,”
the
cousin
of
those
tiny
barnacles
which
roughen
every
rock
(a
larger
sort
whereof
I
showed
you
on
the
Turritella),
and
of
those
larger
ones
also
who
burrow
in
the
thick
hide
of
the
whale,
and,
borne
about
upon
his
mighty
sides,
throw
out
their
tiny
casting
nets,
as
this
Pyrgoma
does,
to
catch
every
passing
animalcule,
and
sweep
them
into
the
jaws
concealed
within
its
shell.
And
this
creature,
rooted
to
one
spot
through
life
and
death,
was
in
its
infancy
a
free
swimming
animal,
hovering
from
place
to
place
upon
delicate
ciliæ,
till,
having
sown
its
wild
oats,
it
settled
down
in
life,
built
itself
a
good
stone
house,
and
became
a
landowner,
or
rather
a
glebæ
adscriptus,
for
ever
and
a
day.
Mysterious
destiny!—
yet
not
so
mysterious
as
that
of
the
free
medusoid
young
of
every
polype
and
coral,
which
ends
as
a
rooted
tree
of
horn
or
stone,
and
seems
to
the
eye
of
sensuous
fancy
to
have
literally
degenerated
into
a
vegetable.
Of
them
you
must
read
for
yourself
in
Mr.
Gosse’s
book;
in
the
meanwhile
he
shall
tell
you
something
of
the
beautiful
Madrepores
themselves.
His
description,
{118}
by
far
the
best
yet
published,
should
be
read
in
full;
we
must
content
ourselves
with
extracts.
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