THE JELLY-FISH 1381 



These Sertularians were noticed and drawn many 

 years ago, and were called Corallines. This is a great 

 mistake, because the Coralline is a plant covered 

 with carbonate of lime. The correct name would be 

 the Garland polypes. When we get a bunch of these 

 creatures from the seaside they are dead, and the 

 hard and preservable outside parts alone are left, all 

 the beauty of color and the wonderful inside struc- 

 ture are gone. But even then it can be noticed that 

 the stems of the creature arise from a network of 

 tubes fixed on to stones, sea-weeds, and shells. This 

 resembles a root, but it does not absorb nourishment 

 like the root of a plant. The stems, often not bigger 

 than hairs, are hollow, and the branches also. The 

 surface of the branches is covered on one, or often on 

 both sides, by minute cups. These give almost a saw- 

 edge look to it, in some of the creatures; and among 

 these cups, which are open at their free end, are some 

 larger ones, which are closed where free, and often 

 ribbed and ornamented on their outside. It is no- 

 ticed that the hollow of the stem and branches is con- 

 tinued into the cups, but not into the closed ones, and 

 that these are shut off from it by a very delicate 

 layer of tissue. This is the minute structure of these 

 things when dead ; but when alive, the inside of the 

 stem and branches is filled with a soft substance, 

 which reaches up to the part where each of the cups 

 is attached to the outside. The cups, hundreds in 

 number, on each stem and branch, contain a most 

 beautiful flower-like polype. Variously colored, ac- 

 cording to the kind, it has a bell shape, and has a spot 

 for the mouth, which leads to a stomach, whose floor 



