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THE OCEAN WORLD. 



other bodies. In short, this polyp may be described as a parasite, 

 for it generally attaches to some other bodies, and it is by no means 

 unusual to meet with it attached even to shells. 



The Meandrina differ from the Astreas in having the surface 

 hollowed out into shallow sinuous elongated cells, furnished on each 

 side of the mesial line with hooked lamellae, ending against one or 

 other of the ridges with separate valleys; the polypidom, which is 

 calcareous, being fixed, simple, and inversely conical when young, and 

 globular when old. The animals have each a distinct mouth, and 



Fig. 71. Meandrina cerebriformis (Lamarck). 



lateral series of short tentacula ; they are contained in shallow cells, 

 meeting at the base, and forming by their union long and tortuous 

 hollows. Meandrina cerebriformis (Fig. 71), so called from its 

 resemblance to the folds of the brain, is a native of the American 



The Fungia, so called by Lamarck from their resemblance to the 

 vegetable Fungi, are too remarkable in their appearance to be passed 



