370 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Oh. XXI. 



them. These were of the size of a very small orange, and 

 differed from the large forms above described chiefly in the 

 fact that they were invariably perfect in their association, 

 and of a perfectly spheroidal form ; never floating in twos 

 and threes, but always associated in numbers of eight or 

 nine to twelve or thirteen — also never having an outer 

 series, as in the larger kind ; nor did I observe in any of 

 them the little crustacean so common in the first-men- 

 tioned. But in form the smaller were mere miniatures of 

 the larger ; and in their anatomy I could detect no differ- 

 ence. I imagined that they were a young condition of those 

 first described ; but this supposition was considerably 

 shaken by the fact, that of the myriads I noticed I never 

 could see an intermediate form between the two. Their 

 union by long pedicles, meeting also by a knife-edge in the 

 centre, was more distinctly visible than in the first form, 

 and the effect produced was a stellate arrangement of perfect 

 symmetry and great beauty. This form is also considered 

 by Vogt to be of the same species as the larger one, and 

 thus we have the curious phenomenon of these compound 

 animals — ^whose union of several individuals to constitute 

 a compound mass is in itself one of the most remarkable 

 circumstances met with by the naturalist — assuming two 

 distinct forms in their united condition, as well as having 

 a simple or celibate form, which never connects itself in 

 compound masses, but alwaj'^s remains single, and retains 

 its own proper individuality. 



The number of these animals associated in one globose 

 mass varied. In one I counted nine, in another ten, in an- 

 other thirteen. The mouths of all did not, as far as I 

 could make out, open simultaneously, and the upper mouth 

 had precisely the same construction as that of the first- 



