CCELENTERATA 



/ 3 



They exhibit many tints and shades of red, yellow, brown, green, 

 and purple, and often there is a brilliant contrast in color be- 

 tween the polyps and the 

 coenosare, as in the red 

 coral, whose polyps are a 

 pure white, while the coe- 

 nosare is crimson. Some 

 corals are a bright blue, 

 others a delicate pink, some 

 a transparent white. 



The sea anemones live 

 for the most part along 

 the shore in shallow water. 

 They are larger than the 



hydroid polyps and vary Fie 59. Meandrina, a rose-coral; skeleton, re- 

 2Teatlv in size Some in the duced about one half. ( Photographed Irom speci- 

 ° ■* # ' men by the author.) 



tropics attaining a diameter 



of over sixty centimeters, or about two feet. In some cases 



there is a kind of symbiosis between sea anemones and other 



FlG. 60. Oculina, a freely branching coral ; small fragment of skeleton, slight!) 

 ^ Photographed from specimen by the autho 



