160 THE WORLD OF THE SEA, 
is popularly known as the marine palm. This curious animal 
resembles a flower borne upon a stem, the calyx of the flower 
being the head of the animal. The stem has a calcareous core, 
which is secreted by the living tissue which surrounds it. The 
arms branch out from the calyx. In fact, the animal is a star-fish 
fixed to a stem—the fixed star of the ocean world. It has no 
mouth, and its digestive apparatus is very rudimentary. Its 
pedicle is slender, angular wgandegjomted: The animal ican 
balance itself in any position, and appears to enjoy a kind of 
sensibility. Thus these animals occupy that position which is 
always found in moving from one section of the kingdom of nature 
to another; they are the stepping-stones between the animals 
which are fixed and those which are free. Nature never leaps, 
she always steps. 
In 1823 Mr. Thompson discovered the second species in the 
European waters. The Pentacrinus Europeus is very small; the 
rays are deeply divided into two parts, and they appear to have 
ten of these tentacles; they are furnished with cilia. The pedicle 
is often as slender as a thread, 
