596 Eadiata. 



THE SEA-UKCHIN. (Echinus miliaris.) 



THIS animal, which lodges in the cavities of rocks just 

 beneath low- water mark, on most of the British coasts, is 

 nearly of a globular shape, not much unlike that of an 

 orange, having its shell marked into ten partitions, with 

 rows of projections like beads, which divide it. On the 

 outside of the shell there are a great number of sharp, 

 moveable spines, of a dull violet and greenish colour, 

 curiously articulated, like balls and sockets, with tuber- 

 cles on the surface, and connected by strong ligaments to 

 the skin or epidermis with which the shell is covered. 

 The mouth is situated in the under part, and is armed 

 with five strong and sharpened teeth. The animal can 

 move from place to place by means of its contractile 

 tubular feet and its spines ; but its movements are slow 

 and laborious. So tenacious of life are the Sea-urchins, 

 that the ancients, according to Appian, believed that the 

 body retained life even when cut to pieces. 



" If in the sea the mangled parts you cast, 

 The conscious pieces to their fellows haste ; 

 Again they aptly join, their whole compose, 

 Move as before, nor life nor vigour lose." 



In Marseilles, and some other towns on the continent, 

 the Sea-urchin is exposed for sale in the markets, as 

 oysters are with us, and is eaten boiled as an egg. The 

 Eomans adopted it as food, and dressed it with vinegar, 

 mead, parsley, and mint. 



ZOOPHYTES. 



ZOOPHYTES were long supposed to hold a middle station 

 between animals and vegetables. Most of them, deprived 

 altogether of the power of locomotion, are fixed by stems 

 that take root in the crevices of rocks, among sand, or in 

 such other situations as Nature has destined for their 

 abode ; these, by degrees, send off branches, till at length 

 some of them attain the size and extent of large shrubs. 



