230 MICROSCOPY FOR BEGINNERS. 



your return home, nothing but a softening, slimy mass 

 that will soon force you to throw it away. If suspended 

 in a large vessel of water kept very fresh by frequent 

 change, Pectinatella will live for some time in captivity. 

 In Fig. 155 (after Hyatt) is shown a small colony with 

 the lophophores and tentacles expanded and enlarged, as 

 they appear with a good pocket-lens. The absence of 

 color and motion, however, makes a great difference in 

 their beauty. 



In old colonies, especially late in the season, there are 

 often to be seen very many small, rounded, brown 

 bodies, which, as the animals die, float to the surface of 

 the water. These are the winter eggs or statoblasts. 

 They are formed within the body, and escape only when 

 the Polyzoon dies and melts away, when they float out 

 and remain unchanged until the*warmth of spring de- 

 velops them. Under the microscope the stat- 

 oblasts of Pectinatella are seen to be encircled 

 by a row of double hooks, as shown in Fig. 

 155 - l liave collected them late in the fall, 

 of Pectu an( j ? keeping them in a small aquarium in a 

 warm room, have had them hatch out in No- 

 vember. The young fastened themselves to the sides 

 of the glass bowl, where they appeared like delicate 

 grains of translucent pearl. There was no jelly at this 

 early stage, and each little Pectinatella stood alone, con- 

 sequently all the internal organs were even more dis- 

 tinctly visible than usual through their hyaline bodies. 

 I hoped to see them develop into colonies, but the sur- 



