242 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



varieties, are found upon shells, stones, or broken 

 glass and pottery, which have been long immersed 

 in the water. On these the tube-worms form their 

 abodes, consisting of a vermiform encrustation 

 of carbonate of lime, firmly attached to the sur- 

 face of the hard body with which it is connected, 

 and presenting a variety of fantastic convolutions. 

 There are, however, several distinct species of 

 serpula. Some are very minute, some form their 

 shelly tubes in a spiral manner, others twist 

 them into a great variety of convolutions. In 

 others again the tubes are lime-coloured, in others 

 perfectly transparent; in some they are round, 

 some wrinkled and angular. Some of the ser- 

 pulae are evidently gregarious, a large number 

 of them occupying the surface of the same shell 

 or stone, while, on the other hand, we find a large 

 species which is solitary occupying the surface of 

 one shell, and living without any companion. 



The serpulae differ from the lug already spoken 

 of in the peculiar modification of their breathing 

 apparatus, which consists of a fan-shaped body ex- 

 tremely graceful in its form and brilliant in its 

 colouring, which the worm, in order to breathe, 

 protrudes from the end of its tube-shaped domi- 

 cile. By obtaining some of the serpulae alive and 

 placing them in sea-water, the process of respira- 

 tion may be easily perceived. At the mouth end 

 of the tube is a door, the mechanism of which is 

 singularly admirable. This door, when the whole 

 of the animal is immersed in water, is opened, 

 and the inhabitant slowly protrudes the upper 



