The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1901-06-01
FREAKS OF NATURE.
ANIMALS THAT BLOOM AND PLANTS
THAT EAT MEAT.

Group Spread Their Fatal Beauties for
Victims-"Nofth Carolina Fly-catcher."
In general, animals move about to
seek food, while plants are fixed to one
spot and get their nourishment from
the earth ia which their roots are inns
bedded and the air that surrounds
their leaves, but there are species In
each Kingdom" that do not follow the
rule. Botanists know Of plants that
have neither roots nor leaves, OF 9TH
ers that have one but not the other,
and or others still that are undoubted=
" vegetable, yet move about as freely
as animals would do. On the other
hand there are animals that never
leave the spot on which they first took
up their habitation, and that seem to
trust to luck for food. The oyster and
clam have thus lost the power OF loco
motion, writes DR.. Charles Minor
Blackford, Jr., in the Scientific Ameri-
can. There are many that have been
separated from the plants only by the
researches OF recent years. Sponges'
eorals, sea anemones and the whole
sea cucumber" group were long De-
lieved to be vegetable, and many blue
water sailors think SO to this day.
There are animals that seem to Bios
som as freely as do towering plants.
The sea anemone is one OF the COM
monest of these. 1t is found clinglng
to rocks in sheltered places along shore
in practically every part OF the world,
for it is not confined to any special re-
gion. 1t grows only In comparatively
shallow water, that Is in depths OF less
than 500 fathoms. although there Is
one species that lives in the open sea,
but wherever found 1t is essentially
the same in structure. 1t is a tough,
leathery tube, spread out below into a
base" that fastens 1t to a rock or
other foundation, and expanding above
into the flower like disk" with the
mouth in the centre. All around the
opening of the mouth are curling ten
tacles, not unlike the petals OF modern
chrysanthemum. Some varieties are al
most or entirely colorless, while IN
some others the tentacles are gorgeous
ly tinted and rival the flowers OF the
field; but in all turks death in certain
and horrible form. Watch some little
creature touch the curving arms and
they will be seen to curl inward and
wrap the intruder in their folds as they
push it toward the mouth. The inner
sides of the tentacles are covered by
poison glands that sting the prey to
insensibility or death and so stop the
struggles that might prove disastrous
to the anemone. When the mouth is
reached the captive is pushed into the
hollow interior, and the anemone shuts
I'D into a reddish brown ball until its
meal is digested, when it spreads Its
fatal beauties for another victim.
Another great family of Towering
animals is that including the sea Gu
cumbers." These animals have long,
f]attened bodies of dark color that
ranges from brown to reddish purple,
and their most active movement is a
slow creeping along the bottom. At
one end is the mouth, surrounded by
the petal like tentacles, that push into
it the mud and sand on which the or
ganism lives. The mud of the bottom
is filled with tiny beings that really
furnish the food, but it appears to sub
sist on the inorganic mud itself. The
most curious thing about the "cucum-
Der" is that it takes dodgers in way.
It has a large cavity within its body
that is filled with water, and into this
cavity a little fish called the fierasfer
works its way, and then lives within
the helpless host 1t is not a parasite,
for it leaves its lodging to seek food,
but it merely lodges in the holothurian
for shelter, as the power of singing
that sea cucumbers possess to a high
degree renders them fairly safe from
molestation. The little dodgers do not
seem to do any harm to their land
lords, except when several take quar-
tiers in the same one. and then they
may intiict damage by overcrowding.
The whole class of coral-forming ami
mails resemble plants so closely as to
deceive all but skilled observers. Few
sights in nature are more beautiful
than the coral gardens" in the West
Indies, where the gorgeously colored
vegetation is almost entirely animal in
character. The sea bottom near Mas
sau is formed of white coral sand and
the debris of broken down shells, and
covering this is water of such tran
sparency that the boat seems to float In
air. A plate of glass is let into the
floor of the boat and the reflection OF
the sunlight from the white sand be-
low Eliminates the scene so that Its
smallest detail Is visible. The sheet
of glittering white sand is broken by
dark masses of coral rock from which
stream broad sheets of fan coral,
that naturalists call gorgonias, bril-
liant in vivid reds, yellows and pur-
Piles. The darker masses of rock are
spangled with anemones that equal the
tints of a tropical forest, while the
waving plumes of the sea feathers and
the fantastic shapes of the glass
sponges add the charm of variety OF
form. Clumps of bright hued sea
weeds that bear little resemblance tc
the dirty, faded green ones common or
our coasts, are the only representatives
of real vegetation that greet the eye
All the rest is animal, but the eye IL
deceived by a mimicry of plant life SC
perfect as to make the efforts Of oul
human players crude indeed. The viv.
i'd stars of richest crimson that looh
like blooms on the branches of the
coral are really the ends of boring an.
nelids, worms that cut into the stony
mass and ensconce themselves in the
trunks of growing coral.
However anomalous the idea of flow.