ZOOPHYTES. 349 



and much more divided than this ; sometimes forming a 

 rude resemblance to a hand of stumpy, round fingers 

 of sodden flesh; whence the fishermen call the object 

 " Dead men's fingers," or sometimes, by a comparison 

 equally apt, " Cow's paps." To zoologists it is known as 

 Alcyonium digitatum. 



Certainly there is nothing very attractive in these white 

 lumps as they now appear; but then they are now in un- 

 dress ; they do not expect to see company out of water. 

 Their drawing-room is beneath the waves, in some sub- 

 merged cave of ocean, where the sun's ray never pene- 

 trated, and where the only light is that dim green haze 

 reflected from the sand and shingle of the sea-floor ; save 

 when, on gala occasions, perchance, the Laomedece that 

 fringe the walls light up their myriads of fairy lamps, and 

 the tiny Medu&ce crowd into the watery festivities with 

 their elfish circlets and spangles of living flame. It is 

 then that the Cow's paps " take their hair out of paper," 

 and display their loveliness to advantage. 



Unfortunately, we have no card of invitation to these 

 submarine routs, but perhaps we may induce one of the 

 more juvenile of these beauties to indulge us, as a special 

 favour, with a sample of the effect ; particularly if we can 

 improvise a ball-room suited to the occasion. Let us try. 



Selecting the very smallest specimen — a tiny thing no 

 larger than a pea — I try to detach it without injury, by 

 inserting the tip of my pocket-knife under the frilled 

 lamina of oyster-shell on which it rests, and working off 

 the fragment. I have succeeded : here it is, its attach- 

 ment unbroken : it is still firmly adherent to the severed 

 slice of shell, which is so small that I can drop it with its 

 burden into this narrow trough of glass. The whole con- 

 cern, trough, shell, and polype, is now to be dropped 

 into this capacious jar of freshly dipped sea-water, and 

 put away for an hour into a dark closet. 



