The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-01-19
FORMATION OF CORAL
HOW THE POLYPS DO THEIR ST.
LENT YET LASTING WORK.

"Aa"e from Iheir skeletons-rolyps
Do Not Toll; They Simply Die--Beau-
tiful Animal Vegetables.
The term 'coral insect" survives in
literature, although science discarded it
long ago. Possibly the idea of toll"
and patience" and building for the
future" as the lesson taught by the coral |
insect, also survives to point a moral and |
adorn tale of the same order as one
praising the industry Of the ant or the |
bee. Alas for old beliefs! 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 fortified, 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 simple vegetable existence. Their
toll is nothing greater than dying and
leaving their skeletons behind them.
But how beautiful are these skeletons,
or a cOnglOmerated accumulation OF
myriadsl And how beautiful and inter
esting, too, the animal vegetables, or
rather fowerlike animals. "Sea anem
ones" is the popular name given to 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,
rivaling the most gorgeous corollas ever
blown.
According to DR.. Gustav Eisen, there
are two kinds of corals 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 polyps,
is not strictly correct; coral, properly
sDeakinp. refers also to the living AMI
NAL.
The sea flower, although suggesting q
plantlike structure, is still a true ami
NAL. 1t has q skin, also rudimehtary
nerves. 1t can seize with its tentacles
it can swallow and digest its food anC
throw out the refuse from its mouth: Il
can defend itself from its enemies 10y
forcibly ejecting poison from its many
stings. 1t has some sensation. Quite
number of species of polyps have rudi
mentary eyes, arranged around thel
circular edges like beads. The hardened
base of the sea flower corresponds t
a skeleton in higher order OF animal
even though in some anemones the hard
ness may only be relative.
Coral animals of the sea anemone OF
der reproduce their kind in several way;
One is by ova, which develop perfec
polyps within the parent flower Al
other mode is by budding; still anothe
by fission. In tho latter method me-
mouth may form beside the old one
the center of fringed disk, which the
divides into disks, each surrounded b
its own tentacles and each leading to i
own closed sac In the budding proce
branches are thrown out, from whic
spring new polyps. Tear one polyp
pieces, and each piece may reprodu'
all the parts it needs to form fire:
polyp.
The familiar tree coral Is the resu
of the budding process. The branch
below are the dead skeletons, abo
which the living polyps have mounte
The singular convulutionS IN "bra
corar' were caused by fission, one mou
giving rise to strings of others, WIN
never completely separated from ca
other, and so left continuous line
stony skeletons. 1t must not be 81
posed, however, that Zoophytes OF
stvle of sea anemones are the only co
producers. Some calcareous secretlC
are left by animals related to the L
duse, or jellyfish. Other corals CO
from the bryozoans, which look like |
yps. but really belong to the subki
dom of mollusks. The bottom of
sea is largely covered with deposits fr
such animals. 1t is even believed
in early times they made up the grea
part of limestone strata. Mention IN
also be made of the beautiful and
liant corallines, or vegetable corals,
careous seaweeds, which look like ]
white and yellow branched coral,
which, properly speaking, are algae.
Corals of some kinds are found IN
seas. Those stony formations popul;
called corals are mostly produced Wi
the tropics Probably the variety
known is the red or pink coral, Ions
teemed for ornaments. This was TO
in the Mediterranean from very e
period. Now, however, it has bee
so rare as to be practically extinct.
The specimens of coral seen in
seums and private collections ar
course masses of dead skeletons.
as rock they are, as might be expe'
when it is remembered that the TAI
reefs of Florida and the Pacific isl
are built up of them-no credit to
animals, however, despite the old
Yet if the Anticipated moral be lost
study of the calcareous formatli
none the less interesting.
There is the fungus coral, dull
in color and shaped somewhat as
umbrella of q mushroom, with T
running from the long mouthlke
to the edge. The lace coral, of a
white, with delicate wheels, md
the radiate structure of each al
when alive. The frost coral, Ju
dainty as its popular name lm
shows q messy grove of tiny VI
spires The organ pipe coral Is
form, with smooth, round, nearly
pendicular branches.
Perhaps the museum also col
snecimens of fossil coral from III
erts of Arizona or Mississippi '
Are you surprised to learn that
mart of our continent Is undertake
corals produced thousands of yea
nv animals long extinct! In m
+besa drIl brown formations can s