ACALEPHS, OR JELLY-FISHES. 227 



of our country. And the fossil ones as those found 

 in the rocks are called are so various in form, and 

 so beautiful in patterns and markings, that no words 

 can fitly describe them. The workman in the quarry 

 stops to admire them, and the learned naturalist is 

 fascinated by their beauty, and never grows weary 

 of studying them. They are the "gems" of the 

 geological collection, and their pictures are among the 

 prettiest to be found in the Geological Reports. May 

 every reader of these pages see at least one good col- 

 lection of fossil Crinoids. 



Of the living free Crinoids, that is, those without 

 a stem, one of the best known is called the Coma- 

 tula, or Feather-Star. When young this too has a 

 stem, and looks not very unlike the Medusa's head, 

 Figure 471 ; but as it grows older it drops from the 

 stem, and lives a free life. 



JELLY-FISHES, OR ACALEPHS. 



Of all animals of the sea, perhaps none are more 

 wonderful than these. Their jelly-like bodies, curious 

 forms and structure, their beautiful colors of claret, 

 rose, and pink, their varied and almost magical move- 

 ments, as varied and graceful as those of the birds 

 and insects of the air, their phosphorescence by night, 

 causing them to be called the "Lamps of the Sea," 

 and their curious changes in passing from the young 

 to the adult state, have interested all intelligent visit- 

 ors to the seaside, and have caused these animals to 

 be carefully studied by some of the most eminent nat- 

 uralists of Europe and America. The word Acaleph 

 means nettle, and is given to these animals because 



