•20 

 THE CORAL OF COMMERCE. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



As coral ornaments are again coming into fashion among the ladies, and 

 coral is more likely to be sought for, a few words on this product of the 

 fisheries may be deemed acceptable. 



The ordinary varieties of coral met with are either bright red (the most 

 common), rose-coloured, white, and sometimes the black kind, furnished 

 by a different order. Coral is characterised by the dealers by various 

 technical terms, according to the shades of colour. 



The coral of commerce is the natural skeleton or organ of support of a 

 species of Polypi (Condition rubrum, Linn.), of which numerous individuals 

 live connected together in a ramified form. Each of these creatures is 

 provided with eight ciliated and radiated tentacula at the mouth, by which 

 it seizes its prey, and organs by which it digests it. The separating 

 skeleton of coral is secreted by a system of vessels which is common to 

 the several individual polypes, and which conveys nutriment to them. 



Almost all the species of Asteroid Polypes have an arborescent form • 

 and so much does the flexible axis of many kinds resemble the stem of a 

 plant, that even so late as the year 1825, the celebrated Blumenbach writes — 

 " The stems appear to be really vegetables (the woody nature of which 

 in the strong main stems cannot be mistaken), merely incrusted with 

 corals." 



Dr Carpenter thus speaks of coral: — "Of the stone-depositing coral 

 animals, a large number are often associated in a compound structure. This 

 consists of a stony tree-like stem and branches ; but instead of the soft 

 animal being contained in its interior, as in the Hydrozoa, it usually forms 

 a kind of flesh that clothes the surface and connects together the different 

 polypes ; and new branches are formed, either by the subdivision of the 

 polypes, or by gemmation from the connecting substance. 



" The firm axis of the Antipathes presents, when dry, a smooth polished 

 surface, which, joined to its dark colour, has caused it to receive the 

 designation of black coral. In the Corallium rubrum, the solidification of 

 the axis has proceeded still further ; for it contains not only horny animal 

 matter, but a large quantity of calcareous particles, so closely deposited in 

 every part as to give great solidity to the stem, and to enable it to receive 

 a very fine polish when cut into fragments. No vestige of polype cells can 

 be detected upon the surface of the axis.^ These are confined to the flesh 

 and its integument, which are both very soft ; the latter does not contain 

 enough calcareous matter to make it perceptible as a crust when dried 

 upon the axis. The density of the red coral renders it very brittle ; and 

 did it not grow in a somewhat stunted form, it would be liable to injury 

 from the violent motion of the water in which it grows." 



Coral is fished up as an article of commerce for the manufacture of 

 necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings, brooches, pins, buttons, charms, and other 



