ECHINODERMS. 



FIG. 42. FUNGIA. 



however, is but the skeleton, and 

 though it is a very pretty object, 

 those who are acquainted with it 

 alone can form from it but a very 

 poor idea of the living animal. When 

 removed from its native element, the 

 violence at first causes the soft living 

 flesh to contract so forcibly that 

 scarcely any difference is perceptible 

 between it and the dry skeleton, nor 

 is any alteration at once manifest on 

 putting it into salt water. But let it 

 recover its confidence, its equani- 

 mity, then a pellucid gelatinous flesh 

 will be seen emerging from between 

 the plates, from which arise exqui- 

 sitely-formed and coloured tentacles, 

 fringing the surface, across which 

 stretches the mouth, resembling a 

 slit with white plaited lips, like the 

 orifice of a cowrie-shell. 



CHAPTER VII. 

 ECHINODERMS. ECHINODERMATA.* 



IT is beautiful to observe by what gentle steps the student of 

 Nature is able to ascend from the contemplation of one form 

 of animal life to another more elevated in the scale of creation. 

 We have learned, in the preceding chapter, that many tribes of 

 the Polypes secrete calcareous matter in large quantities, and 

 thus construct for themselves a solid framework, which sustains 

 the living mass. Let us for a moment suppose a Polype sup- 

 ported upon a long stem, capable of strengthening its pedicle, its 

 body, the tentacula around its mouth, and all the appendages 

 belonging to the animal, with solid pieces of definite form, such 

 pieces, being connected together by the soft parts and surrounded 

 on all sides with living flesh, would thus form an internal skeleton, 

 giving strength and support to the entire fabric, and at the same 

 time allowing it to bend in every direction. A Polype so consti- 

 tuted would, when dried, present an appearance resembling that 

 depicted in the annexed figure (Fig. 44,7). The creature repre- 

 sented, however, is not a Polype, but an 



* ex^os, echinos, a hedgehog ; 



, derma, skin. 



