826 



THE INHABITANTS OP THE SEA. 



crystalline tube, through which one can distinctly see the internal 

 coloured parts. Sometimes these animals, which abound in the 



Salpa maxima. 



». Upper lip or posterior orifice, b. Anterior orifice, c. Prolongations of the test by which th« 



animal is adherent to its neighbours. 



warmer seas, are found solitary, at other times associated in cir- 

 cular or lengthened groups, termed garlands, ribands, and chains ; 

 but, strange to say, these two forms so different in outward 



Salpse, isolated and associated. 

 A Salpa runcinain, solitary. B. Salpa runcinata, associated. C. Salpa zonaria, aggregated. 



appearance are only the alternating generations of one and the » 

 same animal. The chained Salpse produce only solitary ones, and 

 the latter only chains, or, as Chamisso, to whom we owe the dis- 

 covery of this interesting fact, expresses himself, "a salpa mother 

 never resembles her daughter, or her own mother, but is always 

 like her sister, her grand-daughter, or her grand-mother." When 

 Chamisso first made known his discovery, he was laughed at as 

 a fanciful visionary, but all later observations have not only 

 fully confirmed his statement but also discovered similar or 

 even more wonderful metamorphoses among the jelly-fish, 

 polyps, Crustacea, sea-urchins, and other marine animals. Thus 

 Chamisso gave the first impulse to a whole series of highly 

 interesting observations, and his rank is now as well established 

 among naturalists as it has long been among the most distin- 



