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Cover Legend: Ernst Haeckel: Hexacoralla (cnidaria: anthazoa). Plate 69 from “Ernst Haeckel: Art Forms in Nature” (Kunstformen der Natur), 1904. Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) was the German scientist who coined the phrase “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” and the terms “Darwinism” and “ecology.” Haeckel traveled far and wide, from Sicily to Ceylon, to the North Sea, and beyond. Sketchpads and watercolors accompanied his microscope wherever he went. His on-the-spot drawings of deep-sea vegetation, aquatic creatures, frogs, birds, and higher animals were turned into more than 1,000 engravings. From this treasure-trove, a selection of 100 colored lithographs was produced for publication in his Kunstformen der Natur. The work is considered one of the marvels of 19th century naturalist illustration. Haeckel described these coral stalks of Hexacorallia (current spelling) as exhibiting “gröster Formenmannigfaltigkeit und Farbenpracht” (the greatest variation in morphology and color display). These particular corals, the Zoantharia or Sechsstrahlige Sternkorallen, or six-pointed star corals, as Haeckel subtitled them, are found in most tropic regions of the world. Called Hexacorallia by virtue of their six-fold symmetry, they share this subclass with the delicate, many-tentacled anemones. The intricate life of coral is under increasing assault the world over by man-made pollutants and toxins; in like manner, noxious materials present in cigarette smoke threaten the Formenmannigfaltigkeit und Farbenpracht of our own, intracellular organelles (see page 910). From an exhibition, “Ernst Haeckel: Art Forms in Nature,” at the MBL/WHOI library, curated by Ann Weissmann (http://www.mblwhoilibrary.org/haeckel).