Flowerlike Forms and Fantasies 171 



thirty feet. Ihe finest sponges In the world are those 

 from the fisheries of the Mediterranean and the Red 

 seas. 



Natural reproduction in these creatures is carried 

 on in two ways. In the sexual method, which is the 

 most common, eggs and sperms are formed in the mes- 

 oderm. The fertilized eggs escape as rounded ciliated 

 larvcE which, on finding a favorable bottom, immedi- 

 ately attach themselves; given to growing rapidly, they 

 soon become mature individuals. Sponges reproduce 

 asexually by budding. The buds in some instances re- 

 main attached to the parent and continue to grow; 

 usually, however, they drop off and drift away to begin 

 life anew. 



In another chapter we have seen that certain sea- 

 weeds, the corallines, bear a close resemblance to the 

 corals; there are, on the other hand, animals which 

 have every appearance of being seaweeds. Their plant- 

 like character is even more marked than that of the 

 sponges. These are the fixed hydroids; and although 

 the ordinary eye would never associate them with jelly- 

 fishes, their relationship, as a matter of fact, is not far 

 removed, for they belong to the coelenterates, or 

 polyps. Indeed, all the animals which are now known 

 as coelenterates were at one time called zoophytes, a 

 term meaning "animal plants," and suggested by their 

 likeness to plant forms. And it is the class Hydrozoa 

 of the coelenterates in which are included all the hy- 

 droids, both fixed and free-floating. 



The fixed hydroids differ from the free-floating 

 forms in that they are invariably colonies of associated 

 animals which remain attached to a common, base 



