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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
83
Another
species
of
Madrepore
{121}
was
discovered
on
our
Devon
coast
by
Mr.
Gosse,
more
gaudy,
though
not
so
delicate
in
hue
as
our
Caryophyllia.
Mr.
Gosse’s
locality,
for
this
and
numberless
other
curiosities,
is
Ilfracombe,
on
the
north
coast
of
Devon.
My
specimens
came
from
Lundy
Island,
in
the
mouth
of
the
Bristol
Channel,
or
more
properly
from
that
curious
“Rat
Island”
to
the
south
of
it,
where
still
lingers
the
black
long-tailed
English
rat,
exterminated
everywhere
else
by
his
sturdier
brown
cousin
of
the
Hanoverian
dynasty.
Look,
now,
at
these
tiny
saucers
of
the
thinnest
ivory,
the
largest
not
bigger
than
a
silver
threepence,
which
contain
in
their
centres
a
milk-white
crust
of
stone,
pierced,
as
you
see
under
the
magnifier,
into
a
thousand
cells,
each
with
its
living
architect
within.
Here
are
two
kinds:
in
one
the
tubular
cells
radiate
from
the
centre,
giving
it
the
appearance
of
a
tiny
compound
flower,
daisy
or
groundsel;
in
the
other
they
are
crossed
with
waving
grooves,
giving
the
whole
a
peculiar
fretted
look,
even
more
beautiful
than
that
of
the
former
species.
They
are
Tubulipora
patina
and
Tubulipora
hispida;—
and
stay—
break
off
that
tiny
rough
red
wart,
and
look
at
its
cells
also
under
the
magnifier:
it
is
Cellepora
pumicosa;
and
now,
with
the
Madrepore,
you
hold
in
your
hand
the
principal,
at
least
the
commonest,
British
types
of
those
famed
coral
insects,
which
in
the
tropics
are
the
architects
of
continents,
and
the
conquerors
of
the
ocean
surge.
All
the
world,
since
the
publication
of
Darwin’s
delightful
“Voyage
of
the
Beagle,”‘
and
of
Williams’
“Missionary
Enterprises,”
knows,
or
ought
to
know,
enough
about
them:
for
those
who
do
not,
there
are
a
few
pages
in
the
beginning
of
Dr.
Landsborough’s
“British
Zoophytes,”
well
worth
perusal.
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