But it soon came out that that theory was not correct; for the coralpolypes cannot live and build save in shallow water--say in thirty to forty fathoms.
Now coral polypes are sea-anemones, which make each a shell of lime, growing with its growth.
The embryos of the coral polypes have fixed themselves upon the submerged shore of the island, as far out as they could live, namely, to a depth of twenty or twenty-five fathoms.
But the growth would take place almost exclusively around the circumference of the reef, this being the only region in which the coral polypes would find the conditions favourable for their existence.
He wrote "Memoires pour servir a l'histoire d'un genre de polypes d'eau douce, a bras en forme de cornes.
The masses of coral which may be formed by the assemblages of polypes which spring by budding, or by dividing, from a single polype, occasionally attain very considerable dimensions.
These polypes are sometimes solitary, in which case the whole skeleton is represented by a single cup, with partitions radiating from its centre to its circumference.
The manner in which the polypes propagate, is most perceptible in the grisca and fusca, as being considerably larger than the viridis.
These are the polypes in a quiescent state, and apparently inanimate.
The polypes produce young ones indiscriminately from all parts of their bodies, and five or six young ones have frequently been produced at once; nay, M.
Figure 1 shows one of these expanded polypes as seen through the microscope.
If we touch one of these polypes ever so lightly, the great army immediately close their tentacles, for the same life pervades the entire colony, and those on the extreme outer edge feel the contact as quickly as the one we touched.
Most of the polypes are fixed and stationary; but the hydra and some others have the power of changing their positions, which they do in search of the light of the sun.
The varieties of the polypes are exceedingly numerous, and many of them are in the highest degree curious, and often very beautiful.
The lobsters' horns are Antennaria antennina; and mingled with them are Plumulariae, always to be distinguished from Sertulariae by polypes growing on one side of the branch, and not on both.
It is rarely that thepolypes can be seen in a state of expansion.
Hence a new race of polypes budded, which by and by formed the third floor; and so on in succession, until the series had attained the height which we see.
The coral-polypes are working still with great energy.
Shall we try to estimate the number of polypes that have been occupied in building this tree?
Its central stem is beset on each side with about twenty-five horizontal purple pinnae, and each pinna bears from five to fifteen polypes with eight tentacles each.
The youngPolypes formed by budding are represented in the figure, adhering to the base of the parent.
When the water has stood for some hours, the Polypeswill be seen, on careful examination, adhering to the sides of the glass.
With a very few exceptions, both the red and the white coralpolypes are, in their adult state, firmly adherent to the sea-bottom; nor do their buds naturally become detached and locomotive.
These polypesate sometimes solitary, in which case the whole skeleton is represented by a single cup, with partitions radiating from its centre to its circumference.
In order to get over this objection, it was at one time supposed that the reef-building polypes had settled upon the summits of a chain of submarine mountains.
The active and vigorous growth of the reef goes on only at the seaward margins, where the polypes are exposed to the wash of the surf, and are thereby provided with an abundant supply of air and of food.
The red coral is comparatively limited, but the polypes which form the white coral are widely scattered.
I told you that the polypes which built these reefs were not able to live at a greater depth than 20 to 25 fathoms of water; and that is the reason why the fringing reef goes no farther from the land than it does.
It is a tree, but at the end of the branches there are open mouths of polypes instead of flowers.
But there are certain parts of the world in which the coral polypes which live and grow are of a kind which remain, adhere together, and form great masses.
They are the coral polypes which grow, flourish, and add to the mass of calcareous matter which already forms the reef.
Now let the coral polypes come and perch on the shore and build a fringing reef, which will stop when they come to 20 or 25 fathoms, and you will have a fringing reef like that round the island in the illustration.
They differ from the ordinary polypes just in the same way as those plants which form a peat-bog or meadow-turf differ from ordinary plants.
In the red coral, the skeleton belongs to the whole; in the white coral there is a special skeleton for every one of these polypes in addition to that for the whole body.
But these destructive causes do not prevent the polypes from imperturbably carrying on their gigantic labours, incessantly elevating the islands and solid barriers which are so skilfully adapted to resist the oceanic action.
Urged on by a wonderful instinct, the polypes labour together at the same work; isolated, they would be weak and helpless; in combination, they are strong.
The species of infusoria born of the sponge resemble the larvæ of variouspolypes at the moment they issue from the egg.
People used to believe, and reasonably enough, that the coral polypes began to build up the islands from the very bottom of the deep sea.
Coral-polypes is the best name for them, because they have arms round their mouths, something like a cuttlefish, which the ancients called Polypus.
Surely you do not mean to say that the polypes form sponge as well as coral!
We have no difficulty in seeing a unity in multitude, and a multitude in unity here, because we can observe the wood and the gelatinous tissue connecting together all the individuals which compose either the tree or the mass of polypes [sic].
The monad is one of his Polypes amorphs, and he says that it is the most simple animal form, the most like the original germ (ébauche) from which living bodies have descended.
Now I should have been in a towering passion at this, if in my travels I hadn't discovered a race of little creatures as much smaller than polypes as a mouse is smaller than an elephant.
I was so bent on outdoing the polypes that I didn't much care what happened; and so I went to work in my clumsy way.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "polypes" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
