Transcribe Catalogue...of echinodermata, corals, gorgonias, sponges (1892?)

THE CORAL GROVE.

Deep in the wave is a coral grove, Where the purple mullet and gold-fish rove; Where the sear-flower spreads it leaves of blue. That never are wet with falling dew, Buti n bright and changeful beauty shine, Far down in the green and glossy brine. The floor is of sand, like the mountain drift, And the pearl-shells spangle the flinty snow; From coral rocks the sea-plants lift Their boughs where the tides and billows flow; The water is calm and still below, For the winds and waves are absent there, And the sands are bright as the stars that glow In the motionless fields of upper air. There, with its waving blade of green, The sea-flag streams through the silent water, And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen To flash like a banner bathed in slaughter. Then, with a light and easy motion, The fan-coral sweeps through the clear, deep sea, And yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean Are bending like corn on the upland lea. And life in rare and beautiful forms, Is sporting amid those bowers of stone, And is safe when the wrathful spirit of storms Has made the top of the wave his own. And when the ship from his fury flies, When the myriad voices of ocean roar, When the wind god frowns in the murky skies, And demons are waiting the wreck on shore; Then far below in the peaceful sea, The purple mullet and gold-fish rove, Where the waters murmur tranquilly Through the bending twigs of the coral grove.