SEA- SIDE STUDIES. 



323 



ridge along its under surface. They have no genuine locomotive suck- 

 ers like starfishes, but instead they have numerous tuberculated organs 

 which pass out through holes in the sides of the arms. Their madre- 

 poric body is in one of the circular plates on the under side of the 

 disk. 



Allusion is made above to the brittleness of the serpent-stars. This 

 sort of brittleness is not confined exclusively to these echinoderms : at 

 least one species of starfish exhibits the same property. The lamented 

 Prof. Edward Forbes tells a story of his experience with a starfish 

 known as Luidia, which shows that it equals any serpent-star in brit- 

 tleness. The professor went dredging for the Luidia. He brought 

 up a fine specimen and laid it on one of the benches in the boat, and 

 went on with his dredging. ^Yhen he was ready to go home he found 

 his Luidia in fragments. It had gone to pieces of its own accord 

 probably by contraction. Much disappointed by the loss of so desirable 

 a specimen, he determined to take great precautions when he should 

 capture another Luidia, that he might not again have to put up with 

 pieces only. So, next time, he took the precaution to carry a bucket- 

 ful of pure fresh-water, intending to plunge the Luidia into it, thus 

 paralyzing and saving it before it should have time to break itself in 

 pieces. Pulling up the dredge and seeing that he had a fine specimen, 



Fig. 24. " Basket-fish " (Astrophyton Agmsisii, Stimpson). 



he let down his bucket of fresh- water so that its top was near the sur- 

 face of the sea, intending, as soon as the dredge should reach the sur- 

 face, to overturn it into the bucket ; but, just when he would lift the 

 dredge from the sea, the Luidia, as if apprehending the situation, 

 went to pieces, and these began to disappear through the meshes ; 



