268 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
the water to some new locality. Sometimes, also, in order to change 
their feeding-ground, the Comatula abandon the submarine forests, 
herbage, and sea-wracks, and float through the water, moving their 
arms with considerable rapidity in search of a new station. 
The Mediterranean Comatula (Fig. 108) is largely diffused around 
Fig. 108.—Comatula mediterranea (Lamarck), natural size. 
the shores of the Mediterranean, and on our own coasts. Its spread- 
ing arms extend to three or four inches ; its colour is purple, shaded 
and spotted with white upon the ventral surface. 
Were a traveller to tell us that he had seen animals drop their 
eggs upon masses of stone; that these eggs, after executing certain 
progressive evolutions, finally became individuals in all respects un- 
like their parents, and attached themselves to the stones by a root 
