78 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE 



faces the foot of the cradle; and this flat side is a movable 

 door, with a hinge along its lower edge. The door is of 

 a yellow hue; the globule itself being, as I said, of a 

 pearly white hue. 



This is all that we can see in this dried specimen; but 

 if we had been fortunate enough to have examined it when 

 first it was torn from its attachment to an old shell at the 

 bottom of the sea, you would have seen much more. And 

 what would then have appeared I will describe to you. 



Suppose, then, that a coverlid of transparent skin were 

 stretched over each cradle, from a little within the margin 

 all round, leaving a transverse opening just in the right 

 place viz., over the pillow and you would have ex- 

 actly what exists here. There is a crescent- form slit in 

 the membrane of the upper part of the cell, from which the 

 semicircular edge, or lip, can recede, if pushed from within. 



Suppose, yet again, that in every cradle there lies a 

 baby, with its little knees bent up to its chin, in that zig- 

 zag fashion that children, little and big, often like to lie 

 in. But stay, here is a child moving ! Softly ! He slowly 

 pushes open the semicircular slit in the coverlid, and we 

 see him gradually protruding his head and shoulders in an 

 erect position, straightening his knees at the same time. 

 He is raised half out of bed, when lo ! his head falls open, 

 and becomes a bell of tentacles ! The baby is the tenant- 

 polype! 



"This is a very amusing romance," you say. Nay, it 

 is no romance at all. If you will excuse the homeliness 

 of the comparisons, I will venture to affirm that a personal 

 examination of the creature itself would justify their cor- 

 rectness, and you would acknowledge that they could 

 scarcely be more apt. 



