268 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



the water to some new locality. Sometimes, also, in order to change 

 their feeding-ground, the Comatula abandon the submarine forests, 

 herbage, and sea-wracks, and float through the water, moving their 

 arms with considerable rapidity in search of a new station. 



The Mediterranean Comatula (Fig. 108) is largely diffused around 



Fig. 108. Comatula mediterranea (Lamarck), natural size. 



. xfiiw b-jffoub 



the shores of the Mediterranean, and on our own coasts. Its spread- 

 ing arms extend to three or four inches ; its colour is purple, shaded 

 and spotted with white upon the ventral surface. 



Were a traveller to tell us that he had seen animals drop their 

 eggs upon masses of stone ; that these eggs, after executing certain 

 progressive evolutions, finally became individuals in all respects un- 

 like their parents, and attached themselves to the stones by a root 



