STARS AT LA ML ASH. 41 



in that it spends part of its life (fig. 1 1 b) only in 

 the stalked state. Other crinoids spend the whole 

 of their lives in this fixed condition. Here we find 

 a link, perhaps, in the chain of causes which have 

 wrought out starfish destinies. 



Perhaps our modern brittle and other starfishes are 

 derivatives of stalked forms ; and the rosy feather 

 star, in leaving its stalk, shows us how the free and 

 unstalked life was evolved. This may be a statement 

 I cannot prove, therefore I only suggest it as a likely 

 theory, in view of the fact that one likes to be able 

 to imagine w r hy one starfish is stalked and another 

 not. But the sun makes it too hot for philosophy 

 to-day, and so we shall stroll back to Innellan to 

 lunch, past the church which nestles in the trees at 

 Toward, and onwards past the bright villas that make 

 this corner of Clyde resemble a Naples nestling on 

 the sea. 



