hydroids, and the sea anemones, and even the 

 worms, which compare favorably with the loveliest 

 flowers of the land. 



Such a one was Serpula, whose pulchritudinous 

 petals I saw protruding from the opening of its 

 tubular home. This calcareous covering it had 

 built on a submerged stone at the very verge of the 

 tide pool. In this accessible spot it was easy for me 

 to watch its quarter-of-an-inch expansion of corolla 

 under the hand-lens without disturbing the water. 



But no sooner did my hand hover over the little 

 "flower" than it vanished with surprising sudden- 

 ness. As the nature and characteristics of this crea- 

 ture were well-known to me, I was aware that it 

 would soon make its reappearance; meanwhile my 

 wait was employed in studying its tube. This edi- 

 fice, although not remarkable for beauty, was a 

 masterpiece of architectural economy. Composed 

 largely of lime, which the inmate excreted from the 

 soluble materials it obtains from the sea, it wound 

 irregularly over the unequal surface of its attach- 

 ment for the length of two inches, whereupon it 

 turned abruptly upward away from the stone for 

 the remaining half-inch of its length. The one end 

 of this tortuous chamber was closed and extremely 



[156] 



