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egg of the medusae, are propMgated by partition and budding, 

 and so, like the corals, form larger or smaller colonies. At a 

 certain time they develop buds which fall off the parent stock, 

 and swim about as medusae , in their turn laying eggs from 

 which issue polypes. The Hydroid polypes are found in immense 

 quantities on rocky coasts amongst the sea-weed. These colonies 

 feed on still smaller animals, such as crabs, worms, infusoria 

 or larvae, which, come within reach of their tentacles and are 

 benumbed by the nettle-cells. 



SipBioiiopliorcs or Siphon jelly Gsli. 



These most wonderful of all sea .creatures are equally the 

 delight and despair of the naturalist. Their fragility, for their 

 bodies break at the slighest touch, is as great as the beauty 

 and originality of their structure. They swim, like the medu- 

 sae , during calm warm weather . close to the surface of the 

 water , and are immediatly seen by the practised eye of the 

 zoologically educated fisherman, who carefully catches them in 

 glasses held for them to swim into. In this glass they are care- 

 fully carried to the Aquarium and as carefully emptied into 

 the tank, and so we can often boast of specimens of the A- 

 galmopsis, Physophora, Forskalia, Praya, Apolemia, 

 Athorybia, Hippopodius, Physalia, Velella, and others. 



The Siphonophores are held by most naturalists to be wan- 

 dering colonies, that is, creatures that consist of more than one 

 organism and are yet a unity. Individuals of the same species 

 living in one colony or stock in more or less intimate connection 

 is a very common phenomenon in the animal kingdom; coral 

 polypes afford an example on a large scale. But the case is rather 

 different with the Siphonophores; they are no longer uniformly 

 organized individuals, each of which performs the same func- 

 tions and so is capable , in a certain sense , of independent 

 existence ; bus the Siphonophore colonies are composed of ve- 

 ry differently formed (polymorphous) individuals, animals that 

 divide amongst them the different offices of the colony and so 

 represent an organically connected whole, or an organism of a 

 higher order. Polype-like eaters provide for nourishment, me- 

 dusa-like swimming-bells render possible a change of place, and 

 real medusae undertake the business of propagation; in short, 

 there is similar division of labour as that found among ants 

 and bees, with this difference, that in the case of these insects 

 the polymorphous individuals lead isolated existences, while, in 

 the Siphonophores, they are inseparably united. 



