30 



FIRST FLOOR, SOUTHEAST PAVILION 





Marine Habitat Group. A community of starfishes, sea anemones, sea urchins, corals 

 and sponges as seen below the edge of a coral reef in the Bahamas 



of commerce belong to the latter class. In the specimens exhibited the 

 skeleton only can be seen, the living tissue having been removed. Many 

 of the glass sponges are very beautiful in design. Sponges range in size 

 from the tiny Grantia of the New England coast to the gigantic "Neptune's 

 goblets" found in the eastern seas. This alcove contains certain specimens 

 whose tissue is represented in wax artificially colored to show the natural 

 coloring of sponges, which varies from the bleached yellowish color com- 

 monly seen to deep brown or black, or yellow and red, in varying shades. 

 In Alcove 3 are shown coral animals and their relatives: plant-like 

 hydroids which often are mistaken for sea moss, but which 

 really are a series of polyps living in a colony; jellyfishes 

 with their umbrella-shaped bodies and long streaming tenta- 

 cles; brilliant colored sea anemones, sea fans and sea plumes; the magenta 

 colored organ-pipe coral, and the precious coral of commerce. Coral polyps 

 are the animals that build up the coral reefs (there is no coral "insect"). 

 The best known species in this group is the tapeworm, whose develop- 

 ment and structure are accurately shown by the models in 

 Flatwor the central case. As will be seen, its structure is more com- 



plex than that of preceding forms. 



Alcove 3 

 Polyps 



