Coral At The U. Of M. Museum

The arrangement of the cases filled with specimens of coral on the second floor of the museum, by Curator Sargent and assistant Taxidermist Wood, is about completed. The cases are worthy of the inspection of everyone, and of great interest. Some of them are like beautiful flowers They are of all kinds of form, some small and other individual specimens as large as eight inches across. The corals shown, as has been said, are but the skeletons of beautiful and delicate animals called coral polyps. Throughout the body tissues of the polyps is secreted the calcareous material of which the coral is composed.

In a sense, the coral-polyp never dies, its growth being continuous, while in its native waters, life passing outward and upward, as in the case of a tree leaving the middle part dead.

Living polyps are of the most brilliant color. In a few species the skeletons are red, blue or black, but in most cases they are white, or nearly so. The pure white specimens have been bleached.

To be appreciated, corals should be examined with a magnifying glass as in most species the individual skeleton is of more interest than are the colonies into which they are grouped.

Corals inhabit the warm waters of the ocean between tide water and 150 feet depth. Many of the tropical islands are composed wholly or in part of coral. Some of the more solid specimens of coral are used for building purposes, being sawed out of the reefs in square blocks. Prof. J. B. Steere says many of the smaller churches near the sea coast in the Philippine Islands are built of coral. In damp weather the interior of the buildings is filled with a smell of decomposing animal matter, which arises from the coral. It is also burned and used for lime. Many of the specimens in the cases come from the Beal-Steere collection gathered by Prof. J. B. Steere in the Philippines.