"Is it? I always thought it was a seaweed."
"You'll be calling a sponge a plant next. See those red lumps, near the bottom of that rock? Those are sponges."
"Now there's some real coral!" the boy cried.
"All coral is real coral. What you are looking at is probably a form of the stag's horn variety,"
the curator said, "and that does look more like the coral of commerce. But everything you are looking at, nearly, is coral. These great dome-like stones, do you see them?"
"The ones that look like the pictures of a brain?"
"Yes, those are called brain-stone or brain-coral. And those others, just the same shape only with little holes, instead of grooves, that's star coral."
"Then there seem to be some that look like a bouquet of flowers all stuck together."
"That's rose coral," was the reply, "and those are the three forms you see more generally."
"But where's the pink and red coral? If it's as easy to get at coral as this, I don't see why people don't come here and make a fortune."