ii8 MINUTE MARVELS OF NATURE 



come within reach of one of their spread tentacles 

 is greedily drawn in, the other tentacles are soon 

 clasped around it, and it is quickly engulfed and 

 disappears into the polype's mouth, which the 

 tentacles surround. 



To all appearances they are just little starry 

 blossoms, almost like the flowers of the apparent 

 plant that bears them. Yet they are little animals 

 which greedilv gather and devour other living 

 creatures to support their own substance, and 

 build the structures in which they dwell. Such is 

 the general arrangement of all zoophytes ; but 

 each family varies in its habits and forms. As 

 will be seen by the illustration, the resemblance of 

 this animal-stnicture to a plant is carried to the 

 length that each new polype appears first like a 

 bud. 



Still again, like a plant producing seed, certain 

 receptacles are developed which contain minute 

 eggs (see Fig. 71), and, when ripe, open at their 

 apex by a titiy lid, discharging their contents into 

 the surrounding water, as a plant-capsule scatters 

 its seeds in the air. But here the resemblance 

 ceases ; for, unlike a seed, each eofo- at this stao;e 

 is endowed with locomotion, and swims gaily 

 about for a time, afterwards settling clown upon a 

 shell or seaweed-frond, where it commences life as 

 an independent zoophyte on its own account, first 



