Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-09-23
A CITY IN RUINS.


Once Lived in Thousands of Cradles
Not So Harmless They Seem.
Nothing that we find on the beach is
more of a wreck than the torn bit of
seaweed that we preserve and spread
so carefully and that is SO beautiful;
but the wrecks [ am telling about were
all the homes of living animals, and
among your seaweed-if you have any
I have no doubt you can find at least
two or three genuine wrecks. not of
one creatures home, but of whole cit
les of little animals.
When you pick up what looks like a
bit of weed, but is rather stiff and
horny, keeping its shape as you handle
it, you may be sure it is no weed. If
it is shaped like tiny shrub, an inch
or two high, it is one that is very COM
mon on our shores, the BxgulG turrtta.
If you look closely at it, even with a
common magnifying glass or ''linen
glass, you will see that it is in little
joints. Well, at every one of these
joints is a little cell, or room you may
call it. and when it was in the sea a
little creature lived in each one. 1t
could draw itself down into a mere
lump in the bottom, or it could thrust
out a daisy-shaped head and draw the
sea-water into it's mouth.
" hat is strangest about them. all the
little fellows that lived in one of these
small shrubs were connected together
in such way, through the hollow
stems, that they were like one
animal, and lived and died to-
u f,,1 70
it is all one family, and grew
SWAN around by means of the fringe
when it became fixed on a shell or a
weed, and began this great family of
hundreds of creatures.
Sometimes you will find on broad
seaweed or a shell a fiat colony of
these little creatures, standing out like
the spokes of wheel. and branching
in every direction. This is the Crisia
ebur,eed, and it had its tenant at every
joint Nothing could be prettier than
this little white city when fairy-like
blossom opened at every joint
One of the most curious of these
queer cities is called the leafy sea-mat.
It looks like a thick-leaved- plant. from
a half-inch to two or three inches
high, and of brownish color. Look
carefully at it, especially if you have a
glass, and you will see that it is COW
cred with little cells shaped like tiny
slippers, or, as one writer calls them,
cradles. They do look like cradles, the
more SO as each one has its living baby
in it.
Some of these big sea families grow in
the shape of lovely feather from one
inch to three inches long; it is a Ser
tularia, and 1 dare say you have one
among your seaweeds-Dearly every
one has. 1t is yellowish in color, and
stiff, and will not stick to the paper
like seaweed, but has to be gummed or
otherwise fastened The beautiful pink
coralline that you gather in the rock
pools or on shells was once the home
of thousands.
Little and harmless and weed-like as
they look, some of them are well pro-
vided with weapons. The feathery
one | spoke of has been carefully
studied through a microscope. and it
is discovered that each tiny dot of a
polyp (these little fellows are polyps)
has a lance, or dart, or whatever you
may call it-a long, elastic thread,
very strong, that usually lies coiled up
in his cell, but which he can throw
with great force. IT is armed with
barbs, and it in some way poisons any
little creature it touches. So it isn't
so innocent bit of seaweed as it looks.
1t is a true wreck. not of one, but of
thousands-a ruined polyp city. in fact,
or what the books call a Polypidom.
Sometimes, among all these cities,
you will find one little fellow that lives
in his cunning shell house all alone
1t is about the size of pins head--a
minute tube coiled up tightly and fast
ened to seaweed. The owner. when
alive, was worm-like creature with
an elegant flower-like head, and 8
cork-shaped door to keep out enemies
Its name was Spirorbis. -OVavc Thoraae
Miller. in Christian Union.