Arizona silver belt., 1893-04-15
FORMATION OF CORAL
HOW THE PoLYPs DO THEIR sl-
 LENT VET LASTING WORK.

Do Not ToliI They simply Die-i,cau-
 tifuI Animal Vegetables.
 The term coral insect" survives in literature. although science discarded it long ago, Possibly the idea of "toilH and patience" and "'building for the future as the lesson taught by the coral insect. also survives to point moral and adorn tale of the same order as one praising the industry of the ant or the bee. Alas for old beliefsl Our grand mothers were exhorted to reflect on the vanity of the moth and the butterfly
 Now it is known that the moth and the butterfly are among the chief agents by which the most beautiful and fra grant flowers are fertilized. and that honey and perfume and color and fruit largely depend upon the energy of the insects formerly despised. The other so called insects have no more energy than q simple vegetable existence. Their toil is nothing greater than dying and leaving their skeletons behind them
 But how beautiful are these skeletons, or q conglomerated accumulation of myriads And how beautiful and inter esting, too, the animal vegetables, or rather nowerlike animals. "Sea anem- ones" is the popular name given 10 the whole tribe with their disklike mouths. their petaloid tentacles their stomach suggesting seed vessels and their fixed bases corresponding to stout stems to say nothing of their brilliant colors. rivahng the most gorgeous corollas ever blown.
 According to Dr. Gustav Eisen, there are two kinds of oorals of the sea anem- one order-those which produce coral, that is, the hard, calcareous formation, and those which do not The popular term coral as applied to the accumu lated dead skeletons of the dead poly is not strictly correct, coral, properly speaking, refers also to the living ani m2I
 The sea flower, although suggesting a plantlike structure, is still true ami maj lt has a skin, also rudhnentary nerves It can seize with its tentacles, it can swallow and digest its food and throw ont the refuse from it's mouih 1t can defend itself from it's enemies by forcibly eieetiag puis ] from its many stiug9, l. hes mnc sensation Quite a number of species of polyps have rudi- meutary eyes, arranged around their circular edges ike beads. The hardened base of the sea flower corresponds 10 skeleton iu a higher order of animal, even though in some aneinonos the hard. ness may only be relative.
 Coral Gpimals Of the sea auemone or. der reproduce their kind iu several ways. One is by oya. which develop perfect polyps within the parent flower An- other mode is by budding; still another by fssion In the latter method new mouth may form beside the old one ID the center of & fringed disk which then divides into dicks each surrounded by is own tentacles and each leading to it's l own closed sac. En the budding process i branches are thrown ont. from which spriug new polyps Tear one polyp to l pieces. and each piece may reproduce 1 all the parts it needs 10 form fresh 1 polyp
 The familiar tree coral is the result of the budding process, The branches below are the dead skeletons. above which the living polyps have mounted. i The singular couYulutiOGs in brain coral" were caused by fission, one mouth | giving rise 10 strings of others, which never completely separated from each other, aud so left continuous line of stony skeletons lt must not be sup | posed. however, that zoophytes of the style of sea anelnones are the only coral i producers. Some calcareous secretious are left by animals related to the me dusa. or jellytish. Other corals conC from the bryozozns. which look like pol yps, but really beio5s.s, .1 <; tho subking 1 dom of mollusks. The bottom of tht sea is largely covered with deposits from l such animals. IL IS even believed that in early times they made up the greater part of limestone strata Mention mus also be made of the beautiful and bril liant corallines, or vegetable corals. cal careogs seaweeds, which look like red white and yellow braneLed coral, bu which, properly speaking, are algae. Corals of some kinds are found in al seas Those stony formations popularl, called corals are mostly produced within the tropics Probably the variety bes known is the red or pink coral, long es teemed for ornaments, This was fount in the Mediterranean from very earll period Now, however. 1t has becom' so rare as to be practically extinct.
 The specimens of coral seen in mn seums and private collections are O 1 course masses of dead skeletons. Hart as rock they are, as might be expected when it is remembered that the famou reefs of Florida and the Pacific island are built mp of them-no credit to tn, animals, however, despite the old tale
 Yet if the antiquated moral be lost, tn study of the calcareous formation i none the less interesting.
 There is the fungus coral, q dull gra. in color and shaped somewhat as tn umbrella of a mushroom, with ridge running from the long ucuthlike cente to tho edge. The lace coral, of pur white, with delicate wheels, indicate the radiate structure of each anima when alive. The frost coral, just a dainty as it's popular name implies shows messy grove of tiny uprigh spires. The organ pipe coral is a Ire
 form, with smooth, round nearly per pendicular branches.
 Perhaps the museum also contain specimens of fossil coral from the des erts of Arizona or Mississippi valley Are you surprised to learn that {. grea part of our continent is underlaid wit,
 corals produced thousands of years az
 by animals long extinct? In many o
 these dull brown formations can still b
 traced the radiate character of the skel
 etons.-San Francisco Chronicle.