THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OYSTER. 163 



croscope, a bit of a live bryozoan-patch would look like a bed of living 

 daisies, for these flower-forms are in lively motion in every part. Some- 

 times these communities of moss-like animals, such as are known un- 

 der the generic name Flustra, build their structures up like plants, 

 and literally embower the oyster in the most exquisite of fairy groves. 

 The cut Flustra foliacea, Fig. 3, represents a European species. Its 

 fronds, so to speak, are flat, and spatula-formed. With its gracefully- 

 spreading lobes, like fronds, it has often been mistaken for an alga, or 

 sea-plant. If you will only look closely at this cut of Flustra foliacea, 

 Fig. 3, it will be seen to be full of minute cells. A look at Fig. 4, 1, 

 will make this plainer, while in Fig. 5, 1, by greatly magnifying, the 

 form of these little chambers in one of the species is shown. The nat- 

 uralist, speaking of the entire establishment of one of these communi- 

 ties, calls it Ccenoecium, which means the common house of all the indi- 



Fig. 4. 1. Fragment op Flustra Truucata, Natural Size ; 2. A single polypide of Valkeria 

 magnified to show its crown of tentacles; 3. A polypide of Lophapun crystallinus, a fresh- 

 water polyzoon highly magnified, showing its horseshoe-shaped crown of tentacles. 



viduals collectively ; for each one of these little crypts, or chambers, is 

 the exclusive apartment of one zooid, or individual member of the 

 community. At the portal of this little crypt the occupant, when 

 hungry, presents itself, and retires at its pleasure. When it does show 

 itself, with tentacles spread, some idea of its individual beauty may 

 be got by looking at the magnified tufts, like floral crowns, as shown 

 in Figs. 4 and 5. When an entire community, or even a considerable 

 part, is out airing, could one but see it, the sight would be very fine, 

 for the smallest fragment in the microscope looks like a bed of daisies. 

 The oyster is often literally embowered in a substance that looks 

 like diminutive trees. Its color varies from a reddish to a very pale 

 brown, almost gray. The oystermen call it " gray-beard." Shore- 



