TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



Reproduction by gemmation, or budding, is con- 

 stantly in progress, and by this means the plant-like 

 forms of the erect branched colonies, the frond-like 

 -expansions of the sea-mats, and the flat patches of 

 the encrusting colonies are formed. From the initial 

 cell, which is the commencement of the colony, other 



cells are developed 

 by budding, after the 

 manner of the par- 

 ticular species, either 

 longitudinally or at 

 the margins, and, 

 gradually, the colony 

 enlarges and in- 

 creases the outer 

 cells, being the 

 youngest, in a man- 

 analogous to 



;FIG. 6 1. SEA-MAT (Flustra foliacea]. 



ner 



that in which the 

 coral colony is in- 

 creased. As we look upon a frond of the common 

 -sea-mat (Flustra foliacea} with its myriads of little 

 cells (fig. 61), we may recall the fact that, once on 

 a time, this frond was represented by a single mother- 

 cell, and that, by continuous and consecutive budding, 

 all those innumerable cells have been added, until 

 $he single cell has multiplied into a large colony, the 

 ^polypes at the base having long since died, leaving 



