HYDROIDS AND JELLY-FISHES. 33 



CHAPTER III. 



HYDROIDS AND JELLY-FISHES. 



OUR walk, beginning at Nahant, has extended rathei 

 far, has it not ? Let us come back now from Florida 

 and the Corals, and see what else we can find that is 

 interesting among the animals living close about our 

 own home. 



In many of the pools left by the retreating tide along 

 our beaches and rocks, such as that in which we 

 found our Sea-Anemone, we may find little animals 

 resembling flowers even more than that does, because 

 they grow in clusters like miniature shrubs. On page 

 34 we have a picture of one (No. 23) .* You will hardly 

 believe that it is built on the same general plan as the 

 Anemone, when its appearance is so different ; but you 

 will soon learn, if you watch animals, that their external 

 form may differ very much, and yet that they may be 

 constructed according to the same plan. If we ex- 

 amine each of these little animals, hanging like flowers 

 at the summit of each slender stalk, we shall find 

 that they have many of the features belonging to the 

 Anemone and to the Coral. They have the wreath 

 of tentacles, looking like a fringe around the mouth, 

 and the mouth opens into a cavity in the middle, 



* No. 23. Eudendrium. 



