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CORAL

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CORAL

naire; Fourberies de Scapin; Le Lion Amo'&r-eux\ and Cyrano de Bergerac. He died Jan. 27, 1909. His son, Jean (Coquelin fils), born in 1865; made his first appearance on the stage in 1890, and has, with great acceptance, filled many of his father's famous rdles.

Coral, the skeleton of sea-animals called polyps, constructed like the sea-anemone. The coral is formed within the fleshy part of the animals, without effort on their part, as bones grow in the body. Each polyp consists of a tubular body, fixed at one end. The other end is surmounted by a disc, in the center of which is a mouth, and the disc is surrounded by tentacles. The coral substance is carbonate of lime, and is laid down within the walls of the tubular body, and within membranous partitions reaching from the body-wall to the stomach-wall.

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It is formed in the lower part of the animal, leaving the upper part soft and flexible, and capable of being drawn in and expanded.

The coral-producing animals are sometimes solitary, but, more frequently, occur as colonies of many individuals, united together by a common branching stalk, so that the whole colony is shrub-like. Their general resemblance to plants is so great, that at one time they were called plant-animals. At intervals, along the trunk and branches of the shrub-like colony, are found the individual polyps. These are all connected by an expanse of living matter. The polyps take food from the water into the mouth-cavity, which leads at once into the tubular stomach, and the arrangement is such that the tubular canals of different individuals communicate, making it possible for the food to be carried from one part to another throughout the colony. Coral that is formed within a colony of this description is of the branching kind. (See illustration.) The limy substance is not only laid down in parts of the polyps, but in the expanse of living matter joining them together, and, therefore, the formation is

continuous and assumes the general form of the colony. In the illustration the position of the polyps can be seen as small tubular elevations. There is great variety as to the size of different kinds of polyps. The illustration shows the common branching coral (Madrepora) of the Florida coast, in which the polyps are small. The colonies are not always of the branching form; some are in the shape of large rounded masses, with the polyps arranged in rows or furrows, as in the brain-coral and the star-coral.* (See illustration.) These masses grow to be from one to three feet in diameter.

Besides living corals there are many fossil forms. Among the commonest are those stony masses, often called petrified honeycomb and petrified wasp's nests, to be found on beaches, in fields and imbedded in rocks. The honeycomb-shaped

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masses, especially, are polished and known locally as Mackinac stones. They are used as paper-weights and, to some extent, in jewelry. There also are chain-corals and the single horn-shaped corals.

Red coral is of a different kind. Although the colony which forms it is tree-like and the individual polyps have long tubular bodies, the coral substance is laid down in the base of the polyps—not in their body-walls—and, also, in the sheet-like expanse of living material that unites them. As a consequence, the product is smooth and not marked by elevations. The ordinary red coral used in necklaces and scarf-pins is not expensive, costing from one to one and a half dollars an ounce; but large pieces of the approved rose-tint, which are rare, bring several hundred dollars an ounce. In addition to the kinds mentioned, there are others, known as sea-fans, sea-plumes, etc. The stalk secreted is horny or limy, and, in the sea-fans, is a broad, thin expanse of reddish or yellowish material, formed into a fine network, with thickened veins running through it like the veins in a leaf. These are related to the red corals. The corals are one branch of a subkingdom of animals (C&lenterata) that embraces jellyfish, hydroids and fresh-water hydra.

The extent of coral-formations in tropical seas is remarkable. These animals thrive only in warm (68° Fahr. and above), clear