THE EUPLECTELLA, OB VENUS* S SEA-BASKET. 13 



meshes of the Euplectella, any more than they could 

 frame the starry crystals of the snow-flake. 



The membranous envelope was not found in the 

 Euplectella ; a tuft of glassy threads like newly carded 

 wool sprang from the base, and the glass-threads of the 

 body, instead of being loosely twisted together in rope 

 fashion, were woven into an exquisitely shaped vase, 

 almost exactly representing the cornucopia of the ancients, 

 and closed with a perforated lid very much like the rose 

 of a watering-pot. 



As to the pattern, a verbal description is almost useless, 

 and the representation at Fig. 2 can give but a faint idea 

 of its general aspect. It looks as if it were made of the 

 finest imaginable lace, each thread being of pure white 

 glass, and not so thick as a human hair. As in basket- 

 work, stronger threads form the framework, and upon 

 them the intricate, though beautifully regular, pattern of 

 the meshes is woven. 



Frills of this delicate lace are laid with artistic careless- 

 ness around the upper part of the basket, and the effect 

 of the pure white threads, with the opalescent hues that 

 flit over them with every change of light, baffles all 

 description. The dreams of fairy land pale before the 

 realities of ocean-life, and the mind of man could no 

 more have conceived, than his fingers could have executed, 

 the work which is done by a film of animated jelly in the 

 darkness of the sea-depth. 



There was just a possibility that the glass-rope was 

 the work of human hands, but no one thought for a 



