PLANT ANIMALS. 3 



Let us describe this " animal-tree." In the 

 particular species we have figured the trunk and 

 branches are rigid, while the flowers are active 

 with all the phenomena of animal life. It lives in 

 water, and in order to get food sets up a whirl or 

 vortex by means of its fringes of cilia. Each 

 flower is a living and active being that selects its 

 own food ; and in due time, leaving the colony, 

 wanders off into the world finally settling down 

 and founding a family of its own. First it will 

 develop a stalk, and fix it to some steady object. 

 Then after a time its activity becomes less ; it 

 seems to sleep, and gradually to contract a little 

 longitudinally. This process continues until it has 

 actually accomplished a wonderful feat : it has 

 produced its double a companion in all respects 

 soon to be its equal, and to assist in the great work 

 of founding a colony in a tree form, complete with 

 trunk and branches like the one from which it 

 originally migrated. Such in brief outline is one 

 of its many transformations so wonderful that the 

 German naturalist Ehrenberg compares them to 

 that of an old man going through a process by 

 which he should regain all his youth and vigour. 

 B 2 



