I. BOTRYLLIDiE; 



OR, TRUE COMPOUND ASCIDIANS. 



If, when walking on the sea-shore about low-water mark, 

 we turn over large stones, or look under projecting eaves of 

 rock, we are almost sure to see translucent jelly-like masses 

 of various hues of orange, purple, yellow, blue, grey, and 

 green, sometimes nearly uniform in tint, sometimes beauti- 

 fully variegated, and very frequently pencilled as if with 

 stars of gorgeous device ; now encrusting the surface of the 

 rock, now depending from it in icicle-like projections. 

 These are Compound Ascidians. A tangle, or broad-leaved 

 fucus, torn from its rocky bed, or gathered on the sands 

 where the waves have cast it after storms, will shew us 

 similar bodies, mostly those star-figured, investing its stalks, 

 winding among the intricacies of its roots, or clothing with 

 a glary coat the expanse of its foliated extremities. If 

 we keep some of these bodies alive in a vessel of sea- water, 

 we find them lie there as apathetic as sponges, giving few 

 signs of vitality beyond the slightly pouting out of tube- 

 like membranes, around apertures which become visible on 

 their surfaces, though a closer and microscopic examination 

 will shew us currents in active motion in the water around 

 those apertures, streams ejected and whirlpools rushing in, 

 indicating, that, however torpid the creature may exter- 

 nally appear, all the machinery of life, the respiratory 

 wheels and circulatory pumps, are hard at work in its in- 

 most recesses. In the course of our examination, especially 

 if we cut up the mass, we find that it is not a single animal 

 wliich lies before us, but a commonwealth of beings, bound 

 together by common and vital ties. Each star is a family, 

 each group of stars a community. Individuals are linked 



