Zoophytes. 



to it to make sure it is going down taut, and pay out line equal to 

 three times the depth I want to be in. For deep dredging I have to add 

 weights to the front of the net, but in no case do I allow it to touch the 

 bottom. After being out about half-an-hour I haul it in, pour the liquid 

 contents of the can into a clear jar, add a little more water if the haul 

 has been good, and get ashore. You have always a rare haul, but of the 

 many things we will confine ourselves to two kinds, viz., the jelly fish 

 less than the head of a pin, they could easily go through the eye of a fine 

 needle and the harp-shaped creatures which are the larval form of our 

 friend membmnipora. I add formalin to the jar sufficient to make a 4% 

 solution. They quickly die off and sink to the bottom. The clear 

 liquid is decanted, and the grounds, you may call them, are put into a 

 small bottle. Thence I take them as required stain with an aniline 

 dye in water, mount in glycerine jelly, and seal down the glass with gold 

 size. If you should over-stain clear by adding water. 



But come, let us get on. Let us grow 6 or 12 months older with 

 respect to our subject. By that time, if we have been fortunate, we 

 should have a fairly good collection, and be able to distinguish most of 

 the common species found around our coasts. 



And what shall be the contents of the cabinet? Before answering 

 this question, we must consider the opportunities of the collector. If he 

 can devote day after day to it all the year round, his collection, if he be 

 fortunate, should be large and exhaustive, to describe which would take 

 more time than we have at our disposal. But if our collector can only 

 devote part of a day, or even only Saturday afternoons, his collection 

 would at the end of a year be by no means insignificant. I will take it 

 therefore that, since all of us, or most at any rate, must devote days and 

 nights to provide the necessaries of life, our collection will not be by any 

 means complete. But to describe even this collection, to-night would 

 yield to to-morrow and to-morrow, and so we will confine our attention 

 to the chief types only. 



Obelia geniculata is sure to form part of the collection, as it is the 

 commonest of all our local hydroids. You are doubtless acquainted with 

 the fresh water hydra. You know that it reproduces its species by 

 budding, and casting free the bud after a time. But if instead of casting 

 off the young hydra it should lengthen out, and in turn bud, and this 

 should lengthen out and bud, and so on, and so on, then you would have 

 a colony of hydra on a main stalk. This method of growth is also seen 

 in plants. First cotyledons, then the stalk lengthens out and puts forth 



