144 HALF AN HOUR WITH SEA-MATS AND SQUIRTS. 



ter of that which gives to the mimosa leaves the 

 popular name of " sensitive plant." So beau- 

 tifully constructed is their outer coat, that even 

 long after the animals have died, and the cells are 

 empty, they form most attractive objects for the 

 microscope. 



Examined minutely, the mouth of each polypide 

 is found to pass into a gullet, and thence into a 

 stomach, through the intestines, and out at the 

 anus. The reproductive organs are distinct, male 

 and female, in each individual. In them, also, we 

 get the first trace of a nervous system, which is 

 generally absent in the corallines and jelly-fish. 

 New individuals are produced by " budding," as well 

 as by sexual reproduction, the latter remaining 

 attached to its parent, and thus forming a colony ; 

 whilst the ova settle down individually, and so lay 

 the foundations of another settlement. We should 

 add that, on account of the general structural re- 

 semblance of these creatures to the bivalve shell- 

 fish, and especially to that order of the latter known 

 as the Brachiopoda, they are grouped under the 

 name of Molluseoid, or " mollusc-like " animals. They 

 have been in existence for a long period of time, as 

 we find the remains of their empty cells in the rocks 

 of nearly every geological formation. 



One species we have already drawn attention to, 

 and in Fig. 73 is another and nearly allied one. 

 This and Flustra foliacea are perhaps the commonest 

 in our native seas, and may be found thrown up 



