Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-10-14
A CITY IN RUINS.

The Colony of Little Animals Whicl,
Once Lived in Thousands of Cradles
Not SO Harmless as They Seem.
Nothing that we find on the beach is
moro 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
ali the homes CT 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 BHgmta turrita.
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
cali it, and when it was in the sea a
little creature lived in each one. 1t
could draw itself down into a mere
Jump in the bottom, Or it could thrust
out daisy-shaped head and draw the
sca-water into its mouth.
hat is strangest about them. all the
little fellows that lived in one of these
small shrubs were connected together
i'm such a way, through the hollow
stems, that they were like one
animal, and lived and died to-
gcther. And, wonderful to say,
lit is all one family, and grew
from one mere dot of a sea baby, which
SWAN around by means of the fringe
of hairs or ella, till it wished to settle,
when it became fixed on a shell or a
weed. and began this great family of
hundreds of creatures.
Sometimes you will find on a broad
seaweed or shell a fiat colony OF
these little creatures, standing out like
the spokes of wheel. and branching
tin every direction. This is the CriSia
ieburnea, and it had its tenant at every
ioint Nothing could be prettier than
this little white city when a fairy-like
blossom opened at every joint.
One of the most curious of these
queer cities is called the ieafy sea-mat.
lit looks like a thick-leaved plant. from
"a haltinch to two or three inches
high, and of brownish color. Look
carefully at il, especially if you have
glass. ahi you viii 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 il.
Some ofthese big sea families grow in
the shape of q lovely feather from one
inch TO three inches long; it is a Ser
1ularia, and | dare say you have one
among your seaweeds-peariy 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
,coraliine 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-
Elied with weapons. The feathery
Ione L spoke of has been carefully
studied through microscope, and it
Us discovered that each tinv dot of q
polyp (these little fellows are polyps)
has Il lance. or dart, or whatever YOU
may call it-a long. elastic thread.
very strong, that usually lies coiled up
i'm his cell. but which he can throw
with great force. 1t is armed with
barbs, and ii in some way poisons any
little creature it touches. So it isn't
so innocent a bit OF, seaweed as it looks.
1t is 4 true wreck, not Of one, sbut Of
thousands ruined polvp city, in fact.
or what the books call Polypidom.
!. Sometimes. among all these vities,
you wiki find one little fellow that lives
in his cunning she'll 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-likex head, and a
corh-shaped door TO keep ont enemies
Its name was Spirorbis. Oltre Th0fne
Muller, IN Christian Union .