8TAK.LIKE ANIMALS. 115 



of these minute divisions and subdivisions on this 

 shifting basis is the production of a nomenclature 

 which, being as useless as it is obscure, the first 

 touch of subsequent investigators generally de- 

 molishes ; but which the book-compiler continues 

 to copy and to perpetuate for the mystification of 

 those who may have courage enough to read his 

 usually costly and uninviting productions. 



In some cases the Acinetons are found as ir- 

 regular lumps of jelly-like substance, clinging to 

 the filaments of algae, and covered with extraneous 

 matter to such an extent that they would be un- 

 recognisable were it not for the radiating tentacles 

 which are observed here and there branching out in 

 tufts indifferently from any part of the body if 

 we may call that body which is utterly without 

 definite form. The only thing attractive about 

 them in this state is their fine radiating ten- 

 tacles, which, in some forms, streaming out in 

 bright shining streaks of light, as it were, from 

 a comparatively dark nucleus, form a crescent zone 

 of radiating rays, and remind one of the aurora 

 borealis. In this state they will continue for some 

 time, reproducing themselves in small bright shin- 

 i 2 



