184 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



FLUSTRA TRUNCATA. 



On one specimen you may count 18,000 inhabitants, all 

 rejoicing in the life bestowed upon them, and all in obedi- 

 ence and harmony performing their task in the ocean world. 

 Yes, they all have an appointed work they had it long ago 

 in the ages beyond our own existence before the green 

 earth had arisen from the chaos of waters, or even before 

 the Saurian age of reptiles, in the calm clear ocean of the 

 earliest formations, the little polyzoaries of these zoophytes 

 existed, and their fossil forms are found with those of the 

 lonely Trilobite. 



It is possible to mount these zoophytes with the polypes 

 displayed, and a more beautiful object is rarely seen. The 

 way to manage it is thus : Watch the living creature placed 

 in a shallow dish of its native element, and whilst they are 

 "out" dash in a tumbler of cold spring water, which 

 paralyses the Polypes, and they may be mounted in fluid 

 permanently. Another way I have heard, but not tried, is 

 to pour gently some spirit into the water, which irritates the 

 zoophyte, and it comes forth to drink of the intoxicating 

 fluid, and falls a victim to its poisonous influence. 



PUSTUL1PORA FOSSIL, 



of which the present species are Pustulipom, Deflexa, and 

 Proboscidia; calcareous, erect Polyzoas, with tubes half 

 immersed ; found on shells in deep water off Plymouth and 

 Zetland ; whilst the fossil slides sold by Tennant are from 

 the chalk of Kent and Wilts. 



FLUSTRA CHARTACEA. 



abounds at Hastings ; thin, glistening, and scarcely two 

 inches high, of a light straw colour ; the cells are an oblong 

 figure, protected by a helmet-like operculum. Called also 

 the Paper Seamat. 



The name Plustra is from a Saxon word flustrian, to 

 weave ; and wonderful, truly, is the living web which the 

 Almighty hand has woven in the deep sea ! 



