4i6 



Marvels of the Universe 



[//. J. Hhepslone. 



the previous page — the connections 

 like the others, and covered in life 



Let us see for a moment 

 what a Fan-Coral is like. 



The same description 

 will hold good for the fami- 

 liar Red Coral. As shown 

 to us in the illustrations, 

 we onty see the skeleton of 

 the animal. Just as much 

 as human beings are made 

 up of flesh and bone, so 

 also are the Corals, the 

 difference being that in 

 some cases the " bone " is 

 not composed of lime or 

 calcareous matter, but is 

 sometimes made of horny 

 material ; whilst in other 

 cases the hard skeleton is 

 made up alternately of 

 pieces of limy and horny 

 material. On the next 

 page we can see in the 

 centre of the picture some 

 portions of stems which 

 seem to be alternately 

 light and dark. This is where the two kinds of material take part in turn to make up the 

 stem. Such a stem, it will at once be seen, has a great advantage in seas that are troubled with 

 submarine swell, since the deposition of pliable horn at intervals enables the creature to bend to and 

 fro in a sea that would be fatal to other forms not so well adapted to it. This is, indeed, a wonderful 

 adaptation in Nature, and it may seem strange that other forms have not in the course of time 

 become simOarly adapted. But it will be at once seen that the other forms we illustrate above 

 and on page 415 have other means of suppwrt in the shape of cross-growths of hard material, 

 which bind the whole of the structure together. These cross-pieces of the Coral skeleton remind us 

 of the cross platform-like pieces which we saw in the red Organ-pipe Coral in a previous article ; 

 but the shape of the skeleton is altogether different. 



In these two forms the " Fan " is all in one plane. We can imagine that Nature wished 

 to prevent the straggling appearance sho\\Ti on the next page, and betook herself to cross- 

 junctions in order to steady the whole colony. The most economical way to do this was to 

 press all the branches out into one flat plane, and thus the cross-bars became of the shortest 

 possible length. 



Now we see that however much the young shoots may cluster around one another at 

 what answers for the root — or, rather, we should say, the place of attachment to the 

 rock — they quickly flatten out as they grow older. Just imagine for a moment all the horizontal 

 pieces of Coral removed, and the loose stems would be swept all over the rock around. In 

 fact, they have adopted in lowly animal life a system which, if adopted by the higher forms of 

 vegetation, might prevent many a noble tree from biting the dust after a storm of great severity. 

 We can see, also, that although the Fan-Coral is able to sway forward and backward fairly freely 

 owing to its hornj' build, it is given additional strength and rigidity from the fact that no part 

 of it can bend in any direction individually without affecting the whole. And its fan-like build 



rhoto dj] 



AN AUSTR.ALIAN SE.A-FAN 



!n this species — quite distinct from that shown or 

 oflthe branching network are maze-like. It is flexibl 

 by a layer of gelatinous flesh. 



