THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 169 
be rubbed ; for they are worth your examination, not 
merely for the sake of that ring of gem-like eyes 
which borders their “ cloak,” lying along the extreme 
out edge of the shell as the valves are half open, but 
for the sake of the parasites outside: corallines of 
exquisite delicacy, Plumulariz and Sertularie, dead 
men’s hands (Alcyonia), lumps of white or orange 
jelly, which will protrude a thousand star-like polypes, 
and the Tubularia indivisa, twisted tubes of fine 
straw, which ought already to have puzzled you; for 
you may pick them up in considerable masses on the 
Hastings beach after a south-west gale, and think 
long over them before you determine whether the 
oat-like stems and spongy roots belong to an animal 
ora vegetable. Animals they are, nevertheless, though 
even now you will hardly guess the fact, when you 
see at the mouth of each tube a little scarlet flower, 
connected with the pink pulp which fills the tube. 
For a further description of this largest and hand- 
somest of our Hydroid Polypes, I must refer you to . 
Johnston, or, failing him, to Landsborough ; and go 
on, to beg you not to despise those pink, or grey, or 
