170 Objects for the Microscope. 



tiful zoophyte, one of the family of Campanularidse, and 

 worthy of minute examination. In this species we are 

 successful in preserving the polypes themselves inside those 

 tiny cups. The fibres are twisted in a network on the sea- 

 weed usually a frond of Laminaria or Fucus, and slender 

 threads bristle thickly from the stem a zigzag line, on 

 each side of which rise winged stalks bearing the polype 

 cell ; here and there are large vesicles containing Medu- 

 soides. The peculiar interest of these Laomedea is the 

 wonderful adaptation of their structure to the element in 

 which they live. How would this fragile cup and slender 

 stem resist the wild storms of the ocean if it had not been 

 provided with that jointed pedicle, which bends to and fro 

 on every side in ease and safety, whilst the little inhabitant 

 stretches forth its single row of tentacles, and draws food 

 into its probosciform mouth ? The vesicles also, though 

 apparently sessile, are fixed upon a footstalk like a screw, 

 which enables them to resist the shocks of a stormy sea. 



LAOMEDEA DICHOTOMA. 



Laomedea dicliotoma, or Sea-thread Coralline, is found in 

 long, filiform, zigzag branches, on old shells or stones, or 

 sea-weed, within tide-mark. 



PLUMULARIA CRISTATA. 



Observe this both with reflected and transmitted light. 

 It is the Feather Coralline picked up as sea-weed by chil- 

 dren on the sea-coast, after a gale of wind has cast up 

 treasures of the deep within our reach. It belongs to a family 

 (Plumularia) which has several species, but none so beautiful 

 as this. We find it twined round the stems and pods ot 

 Halidrys siliquosa ; sometimes a mussel-shell will have a 

 feathery plume upon its rich blue surface, and tens of thou- 

 sands of tiny creatures spring forth from those sessile cups, 

 ranged all along the pinnae ; they are shaped somewhat like 

 lilies of the valley, with a projecting spine beneath each, and 

 the vesicles are oblong, pod-like, and banded with cristated 

 ribs ; the more of these, the better the specimen ; but it 

 should be examined when fresh, and is more easily found, 

 perhaps, than any other zoophyte. 



