ECHIN1D&. 



279 



is considered, further, that in each series of ambulacral feet there 

 exist not less than 100, you will have a total of 4,000 visible 

 appendages upon the body of an animal of very small dimensions. 

 If it is considered, finally, that no shell exists more admirably sym- 

 metrical, elegant, or more highly ornamental than the corona of the 



Fig. 113. Echinus esculentus'( Lamarck), natural size. 



sea-urchin, it will readily be admitted that Nature has been most 

 prodigal in her gifts to one of the humblest beings in creation a 

 creature which passes its existence in crawling in obscurity at the 

 bottom of the sea. What elegance of form, eternally hidden from 

 the eyes of man, sleeps under the heavy mass of water ; and yet 

 man imagines that everything in Nature has been created for his use 

 and for his glory ! 



