172 HIDDEN BEAUTIES OF NATURE 



from the tip of the arm to the creature's mouth, 

 situated in the centre at the point to which the ten 

 arms converge. 



The vibration of the rose-coloured 'pile' causes 

 a current of water to flow along the tiny grooves 

 into the larger ones, and from thence into the mouth. 

 In this way food and oxygen are conveyed for its 

 nutriment. 



On the underneath side of the disc, in place of 

 arms, there are about twenty jointed, curved hooks, 

 by means of which the feather star anchors itself to 

 the rock it selects as a resting-place. 



The creature looks very much like a few sprays 

 of pink seaweed. This may be so ordered for its 

 protection. In its young condition of life it is at- 

 tached to a stalk, and then looks like a flower on a 

 very thin stem. Particular attention should be paid 

 to this fact, because it is mainly in this respect that it 

 bears close resemblance to its mighty predecessors 

 which we must notice further on. 



Now the extreme delicacy of texture and colouring 

 in the feather star would of themselves make it an 

 object of attraction, but to these characteristics it 

 adds another namely that it never holds its arms or 

 pinnules in any but a graceful position. The curves 

 are always perfect. Sometimes the arms appear like 

 ten crescents arranged in the form of a living crown. 

 Then they gently curve outwards at the tips, and 

 each assumes a shape like the letter S, all the arms 

 observing a law of perfect symmetry. The next 



