St. Landry democrat., 1882-10-28
WONDERFUL CITIES.

may not think they are bit like ours.
There are no streets from one end to
the other, not a butcher nor baker, no
milkman's bell. nor peddler's cart, and
not a sound from morning to night.
Everybody lives in stone house exact
ly like everybody else's, and nobody
wants to eat he helps himself to as it
goes by, and never finds fault with it
either. Strangest of all, one of these
marvellous cities with thousands of in
habitants would 60 inside OF aquart cup.
Small people, you think? Well, l
didn't say they were people; others be-
sides human beings have homes and
cities of their own. They are not peo-
ple--they are polyps, and the cities they
live in are among the prettiest things in
the sea. L dare say that you who pick
up treasures on the shore have often
carefully preserved one of these little
cities, thinking it was sea-weed, which
indeed it much resembles.
Now there's one-the Sea-Thread
Coralline-as charming as any sea-weed.
When at home, in the depths of the
ocean, it stands up from stone or shell,
or dark brown stem no bigger than a
bit of sewing silk, with many branches
and twigs.
At the end of every twig is tiny cup,
the daint est you can imagine. and in
this little home lives polyp. He
doesn't live alone, for the twigs of the
whole little tree are hollow, and filled
with sort of living pith which is con-
nected with each polyp, and separated
from which he would die. So you see
the tree is really an animal all through.
When the Coralline is only one inch
high, it often has fifty or sixty inhab-
itants, but when it grows to be nine or
ten inches, the residents are counted by
hundreds.
In his pretty home each little polyp
stays, never wishing to 90 out. Ii
hungry. he has only to stand in the
door and throw out his arms-or tenta-
Giles, which look like the petals of a
flower-and food is always to be found
in the water. When he has enough to
eat, or when he is alarmed, he draws
in his arms, and goes back out of sight
in the house, and these are the only ex-
cursions he ever takes.
But the babies of these little stay-at-
homes are of a different mind; they
prefer to see the world a little for them
selves, before they settle down in
humdrum polypidom, as their city is
called.
This is how they manage it. OF
course, in city that looks like a tree it
is to be expected that the young will
look like fruit-and SO they do. Here
and there among the branches will be
sometimes seen a vase-shaped box or
cup, which is of a gay color, and after
awhile becomes lively and uneasy.
There's little movement at the top of
the gray vase, tentacles appear on the
edge like fine threads, there's strug-
gle, a wriggle, and away jerks a tiny
atom of a creature, perhaps as big as a
small letter on this page. 1t is shaped
like a watch crystal, with twenty three
tentacles around the edge like fringe,
and as lively and jerky as any jelly-tish
in the sea. In fact it seems to be a jel-
ly-fsh or medusa. Isn't that a lively
baby for such steady individuals as
polyps?
The polyps don't care-they never
trouble themselves about the young
ster, and away he goes. In short
time another one wriggles himself free,
and SO they go on till the cup is empty.
and every polyp baby is swimming
about in the water. 1t is not long, how
ever, before the little creatures get
tired, settle somewhere for life. and be-
gin to grow like plants-in fact to start
cities of their own.
Another Coralline, the Oaten Pipe
Coralline, is one of the most elegant
creatures in the sea. Its stem-for it
also is shaped like a plants of yell
low color, and the. polyps which live at
the end of the branches are of bright
scarlet, and when expanded look like
beautiful double flowers, of different
sizes andshades, thus giving the whole
the appearance of lovely
bouquet. ,u.s III uI...r. ~, :,
The babies of this Coralline do not
grow in a cup, but in clusters like
bunch of grapes. When a blossom or
polyp at the end of one of the branches
has lived several days it fades and falls
off, like flower in the garden. But
soon new one is seen like bud COM
ing up through the hollow stem, which
is also transparent. When it reaches
the tqpit bursts out into fresh scarlet
flower, as beautiful as the first one was.
Several Of them thus come on the same
branch. ".3
The beautiful Ten'' is the name of
another Of these polyp families, and it
is more like a gay, blooming shrub
few inches high, than like an animal, or
city of animals. The polyps of this
family, which live in tubes at the ends
Of branches, are red and yellow mixed,
sometimes pale carnation color. The
young are like clusters Of yellow grapes,
and when they leave the egg they are
no lively medusa, but white crawling
and swimming worms n. y ~
Parh ans the rarattia.t oifu under I'll