66 



ECHINODEPvMATA. 



which subdividing again and again, always by binary divi- 

 sion, soon become multiplied into living ropes, spread out 

 all around the body ; and being made up of an immense 

 number of jointed pieces, they are as flexible as whip-cord, 

 and as manageable as the legs of a spider. Each of these 

 innumerable cords is, in the living animal, terminated by a 



Fig. 44.— echkodermata. 



minute yellowish fleshy ball, something resembling a little 

 foot, so that the whole creatui-e, as it walks along, a2)i)ears 

 like a conglomeration of serpents, strangely linked together, 

 whence it has, not inapproj^riately received its mytholo- 

 gical name of Gorgonocephalus, or Medusa's Head. These 

 Star-fishes inhabit the deep parts of the sea, and seem 

 princij)ally to frequent coral-beds and localities where 

 marine j^lants are abundant, around which they wind their 

 arms, and thus crawl about in search of sustenance. The 

 intertwined assemblage of their living tendrils forms a sort 

 of net, in which small animals are entangled and dragged 

 towards the mouth. "This elaborate piece of Nature," 

 says its first describer, "has its body resembling an 

 Echinus, or Egg-fish, the main branches a star, and the 

 dividing of the branches, the plant misseltoe. It spreads 

 itself from a pentagonal root into five main limbs or 



