CHAPTER IX
CORAL
CORAL
has been used for personal ornamen-tation, and as an article of
commerce, from the earliest period recorded in writing. Popular to-day,
as it has almost always been—especially in the form of polished
fragments, pierced and strung like beads, and less extensively in
beads, spherical or oval—the most desired, high grade of light
rose-pink coral is becoming scarce, and those who gather it from the
ocean's floor are anxiously seeking new sources of supply. At the
present time coral is increasing in favour and the demand for it is
steadily growing.
Coral—like
the sea gem, the pearl,—is essentially carbonate of lime. Its
structure is erected by a family of zoophytes, gelatinous marine
animals (not insects as is too often written) called polyps. The coral
is secreted by a peculiar layer of the skin; it is the calcareous
skeleton of the lowiy organised animal, and gradually develops
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