THE WONDEES OF THE SHORE. 157 



carefully in a jar of salt water, where tliey may not 

 be rubbed ; for tliey are worth your examination, not 

 merely for the sake of that ring of gem-like eyes 

 which borders their " cloak," lying along the extreme 

 outer edge of the shell as the valves are half open, 

 but for the sake of the parasites outside : corallines 

 of exquisite delicacy, Plumularise and Sertularise, dead 

 men's hands (Alcyonia), lumps of white or orange 

 jelly, which will protrude a thousand star-like polypes, 

 and the Tubularia Indivisa, twisted tubes of fine 

 straw, which ought already to have puzzled you ; for 

 you may pick them up in considerable masses on the 

 Hastings beach after a south-west gale, and think 

 long over them before you determine whether the 

 oat-like stems and spongy roots belong to an animal 

 or a vegetable. Animals they are, nevertheless, though 

 even now you will hardly guess the fact, when you 

 see at the mouth of each tube a little scarlet flower, 

 connected with the pink pulp which fills the tube. 

 For a further description of this largest and hand- 

 somest of our Hydroid Pol}^es, I must refer you to 

 Johnston, or, failing him, to Landsborough ; and go 



