328 EVENINGS AT THE MICEOSCOPE. 



with a quivering, jerking motion ; this is doubtless the 

 nutrient fluid conveying the products of digestion to every 

 part of the common structure. 



Where the branches issue from the angles of the stem, 



the medulla, and consequent- 

 ly the horny sheath, is di- 

 lated into a knob ; immedi- 

 ately above this there is a 

 joint-like constriction in the 

 tube, and the branch itself 

 is insected by four or five 

 such constrictions, so as to 

 form as many rings. Its ex- 

 tremity then expands into an 

 elegant cup, or vase, of ex- 

 treme tenuity and trans- 

 parency, shaped like a wine- 

 glass, with the rim undivided, 

 but so thin and subtle as to 

 be seen with the greatest 

 difficulty. 



These cups, or cells, are 

 each the proper habitation 

 of a polype, which is nothing 

 else but the termination (in this direction) of the living, 

 growing, vascular pith. The latter becomes exceedingly 

 attenuated in order to pass through a very narrow orifice 

 in the centre of a horny diaphragm, or sort of false bottom, 

 which passes across the bottom of each cell. It then 

 dilates into a soft, contractile animal, whose body — but 

 look for yourself ; for here, full in the field of the micro- 

 scope, is one expanding in the highest vigour and beauty. 

 It is a long trumpet-shaped body of granular flesh, the 

 mouth of which just reaches the brim of the cup, over 

 which it spreads on all sides. From its margin spring 

 some eighteen or twenty tentacles — the exact number 



LAOMEDEA. 



