THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. or 
so.'_ But you are told to your surprise, that however 
like the dead horny polypidoms which you hold may 
be, the two species of animal which have formed 
them are at least as far apart in the scale of creation 
as a quadruped is from a fish, You see in some 
Musselburgh dredger’s boat the phosphorescent sea- 
_ pen (unknown in England), a living feather, of the 
look and consistency of a cock’s comb; or the still 
stranger sea-rush (Virgularia mirabilis), a spine a 
foot long, with hundreds of rosy flowerets arranged 
in half-rings round it from end to end; and you 
are told that these are the congeners of the great 
stony Venus’s fan which hangs in seamen’s cottages, 
brought home from the West Indies. And ere you 
have done wondering, you hear that all three are 
congeners of the ugly, shapeless, white “dead man’s 
hand,” which you may pick up after a storm on 
any shore. You have a beautiful madrepore or 
brain-stone on your mantel-piece, brought home 
1 Sertularia operculata and Gemellaria loriculata ; or any of the 
small Sertularie, compared with Crisie and Cellularie, are very 
good examples. For a fuller description of these, see Appendix 
explaining Plate f. 
