364 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



branched, rounded, or existing in a shapeless mass or crust, 

 while the interior substance is of a spongy or cork-like nature, 

 surrounded by tubular rays enclosed in a sort of tough fleshy 

 membrane. The Alcyonium digitatwn, is one of our most 

 common marine productions, so that on many parts of the coast 

 scarce a shell or stone can be dredged from the deep that does 

 not support one or more specimens. As it lies on the shore, it 

 certainly offers few inducements from its beauty to recommend 

 it to further notice, and seems fully to warrant the more ex- 

 pressive than elegant names of "cow's paps," "dead man's toes," 

 or " dead man's hands," which the fishermen have conferred on 

 it. On putting one of these shapeless masses into a glass of 

 sea-water, however, and allowing it to remain for a little time 

 undisturbed, its real nature becomes apparent, and a series of 

 most interesting phenomena present themselves. The dull 

 orange mass, which was at first opaque and of a dense texture, 

 slowly swells and becomes more diaphanous, apparently by the 

 absorption of the surrounding water into its substance, until, 

 having attained its full dimensions, numerous dimples appear, 

 studding its entire surface, each of which, as it gradually 

 expands, reveals itself to be a cell, the residence of a polyp, 

 which, gradually protruding itself, pushes out a cylindrical 

 body, clear as crystal, fluted like a column, and terminated by a 

 coronet of eight delicately fringed tentacula. The unsightly 

 aspect of the trunk, which reminded us of cadaverous fingers 

 or toes, is now forgotten, just as we forget the uncouth branches 

 of a cactus when we see it clothed with its gorgeous flowers. 

 All the polyp-cells are connected by a complicated system of 

 inosculating canals, bound together by a fibrous net-work, and 

 lying imbedded in a transparent jelly, which forms the fleshy 

 part of the compound animal. The eggs are lodged in the 

 tubes, and at length discharged through the mouth. 



The Sea-Pens, or Pennatulse, are remarkable from the circum- 

 stance that, although they possess an internal calcareous sup- 

 port, they are not permanently attached to foreign bodies. 

 The lower portion of the stem, which strikingly resembles the 

 barrel of a quill, is naked, and, when found in the bays upon 

 our coast, is generally stuck into the mud at the bottom like 

 a pen into an inkstand, whilst the upper two thirds of the stem 

 are feathered with long closely set pinnae, comparable to the 



