222 Starfish and Daisy [THIRD WEEK 



friction of the grass stems on either side would soon wear 

 and fray the ends of the side rays, while those behind 

 might grow longer and longer. If we further suppose that 

 this strange daisy flower did not like the water, the rays 

 in front might be of service in warning it to turn aside. 

 When their tips touched the surface and were wet by the 

 water of some pool, the ambulatory blossom would draw 

 back and start out in a new direction. Thus a theoretical 

 head (with the beginnings of the organs of sense), and a 

 long-drawn-out tail, would have their origin. 



Such a remarkable simile is not as fanciful as it might 

 at first appear; for although we know of no blossom which 

 so sets at naught the sedentary life of the vegetable king- 

 dom, yet among certain of the animals which live their 

 lives beneath the waves of the sea a very similar thing 

 occurs. 



Many miles inland, even on high mountains, we may 

 sometimes see thousands of little joints, or bead-like forms, 

 imbedded in great rocky cliffs. They have been given 

 the name of St. Cuthbert's beads. Occasionally in the 

 vicinity of these fossils for such they are are found 

 impressions of a graceful, flower-like head, with many 

 delicately divided petals, fixed forever in the hard relief 

 of stone. The name of stone lilies has been applied to 

 them. The beads were once strung together in the form 

 of a long stem, and at the top the strangely beautiful 

 animal-lily nodded its head in the currents of some deep 

 sea, which in the long ago of the earth's age covered 

 the land millions of years before the first man or beast 

 or bird drew breath. 



