f
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CORAL REEFS
157
Caryophyla, of our own seas, i.e., like anem‘ones but witha
surrounding skeleton, the majority of the re‘ef building
varieties are of the “ c010nial ”
type.
They forin great
.
colonies consisting of large numbers
individuals,
skelètons of Which are all ‘fused together to produce & great
stony mass.
The bleached' corals We see in
or such as are shown in PlateS. 58 =and59,àre
these empty calcareous skeletons,swhich in“ life
»
With the delicately coloured tissue—of the coralyits_elf,lWhile
,_
under water the beautiful
eachsurrîound‘çäd' '
by a ring of tentacles,,dpen and
…
'
from which these polyps pr_dject can eàsilyibè distinguished
‘
in thecoral sk‘eleton,…and willbe found toulead-ÏnOt;i11toæa
smooth rounded opening, such as ‘one
.anemone occupying,5 but into ‘a*—— tube the sides; of which are
raised into
of sharp… ridges »knoW
septa;:;and
which penetrate almost toçtlie middle”
The
presence "of
sépta is :an'; inaportant point o£ difference
between theMadreporàt—i&nïrad the other.jtypesvof'-coràls,
Some'of which we
describe.
-
…prefer;gtoçreserveJthe name"
_
'
feet—building
to ,uthe
_Madrep,orarian côrals,
î yetthese,though the,—most Ï_iaportantg :are by
means the
,
.
only ôrganisräççoœredj With the c'f0rmàtionî of î.coral reefs.'
…
“LIheæ
afracora1s allied ‘to the little
—
:Ïr6i Whichtheydier-aessentiayonlyin the po‘ssession of a
'
thick
cent. of the
-
gin}whicl project the
_
tiny‘polyps wh1chareaumtedtoa common canal within.
,
The
.is one called »Mlep0r3,
which is found
coral re'efSall ov€r‘the World.
It has two
kinds of
a,… pe‘rfectly denite arrange—
ment.
If a piece of thewhitened
of—»this
be examined it will be found to be covered
-
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,