and portions of earthworms," filling up the intervals by a
perpetual dessert of microscopic animalcules, whirled into that
lovely avernus, its mouth, by the currents of the delicate ciliae
which clothe every tentacle. The fact is, that the Madrepore, like
those glorious sea-anemones whose living flowers stud every pool,
is by profession a scavenger and a feeder on carrion; and being as
useful as he is beautiful, really comes under the rule which he
seems at first to break, that handsome is who handsome does.

Another species of Madrepore (11) 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