214 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



those of the sea anemones. When this process 

 has reached a certain stage of maturity, the 

 young medusae begin to be formed. Their earliest 

 appearance is detected in the series of cups into 

 which the stalk is divided. These cups are 

 placed one within another, and have their edges 

 divided into lobes. At length, in each of these 

 cups an independent life is developed. The 

 upper one separates from the rest, and immedi- 

 ately begins to swim about by means of the 

 alternate contraction and dilation peculiar to 

 the parent medusa. The second hemisphere soon 

 follows the first, like ripe fruit from the stem on 

 which it grew. And so the process goes on. In 

 succession the juvenile jelly-fishes set forth on 

 their voyage through the waters, as soap bubbles 

 blown from a pipe wander through the air. 



However various in size and in other respects 

 the acalephae are, they are all in the highest 

 degree worthy of admiration. Not to speak of 

 other peculiarities, how astonishing is it to find 

 in creatures not exceeding the size of a pea, and 

 as pellucid and apparently as simple in structure 

 as the soap-bubble, apparatus perfectly adapted to 

 purposes of locomotion, and evading in subtilty of 

 structure our acutest scrutiny. Referring to those 

 beautiful and delicate organisms the poet justly 

 exclaims, 



" Figured by hand divine, there's not a gem 



Wrought by man's art to be compared with them, 

 Soft, brilliant, tender through the ware they glow, 

 And make the moonbeam brighter where they flow." 



