CHAPTER XI.
The Ocean and its Living Wonders (continued).
The Madrepores—Brain, Mushroom, and Plantain Coral—The Beautiful Sea-anemones; their Organisation and Habits; their Insatiable Voracity—The Gorgons—Echinodermata—The Star-fish—Sea Urchins—Wonderful Shell and Spines—An Urchin’s Prayer—The Sea Cucumber—The Trepang, or Holothuria—Trepang Fishing—Dumont d’Urville’s Description—The Commerce in this Edible—The Molluscs—The Teredo, or Ship-worm—Their Ravages on the Holland Coast—The Retiring Razor-fish—The Edible Mussel—History of their Cultivation in France—The Bouchots—Occasional Danger of Eating Mussels—The Prince of Bivalves—The Oyster and its Organisation—Difference in Size—American Oysters—High Priced in some Cities—Quantity Consumed in London—Courteous Exchange—Roman Estimation of them—The “Breedy Creatures” brought from Britain—Vitellius and his Hundred Dozen—A Sell: Poor Tyacke—The First Man who Ate an Oyster—The Fisheries—Destructive Dredging—Lake Fusaro and the Oyster Parks—Scientific Cultivation in France—Success and Profits—The Whitstable and other Beds—System pursued.
Among the interesting and comparatively familiar forms of ocean’s treasures must be counted the Madrepores, often regarded as corals, but quite distinct as a scientific group from the precious coral of commerce. The Madreporidæ are very numerous, and are formed by colonies of polyps. The poet has truly described them:—
“I saw the living pile ascend
The mausoleum of its architects,
Still dying upward as their labour closed:
Slime the material, but the slime was turned
To adamant by their petrific touch.”
The polyps of the madrepores resemble flowers when their upper disc is expanded and their feelers are out in the water. When contracted, they are concealed from sight in the calcareous cells, which have grown with themselves, and form part of the madrepora. These beautiful and curious natural productions assume many distinct forms. Some of them are arborescent, as in Stylaster flabelliformis, which puts forth a perfect forest of trunks and branches. Others are star-like in shape; many are more or less cylindrical and oval, as in the well-known “Brain coral” (Meandrina cerebriformis). Another genus is entitled Fungia, from a supposed resemblance to the mushroom, there being this difference between terrestrial and marine mushrooms—that the former have leaflets below, and the latter have them above. One of the most pleasing forms is found in the Plantain Madrepore, where the polyps are arranged in tufts.