32 



Life ajid Love. 



crystal in the water to another form of life, much 

 less beautiful to look at, but extremely interesting 

 to the student. This is the Ascidian, or Sea 

 Squirt, so named from its habit of suddenly con- 

 tracting when handled and treating its tormentor 

 to an unexpected jet of sea-water. 



It is an uncouth creature, oblong and lumpish, 



sometimes too small to handle readily; sometimes 



a foot or more in length. In early youth moving 



^ freely through the water, as it grows 



older it firmly attaches itself to the 



rock or something else under water, 



and stays there to the end of its days. 



Let us look at one of the larger 

 kinds. We find it has a thick, skin-like 

 covering with two openings — one at 

 ^ the top, in ; one at the side, o. 



The one at vi opens into the gill- 

 chamber, g. c, and is the mouth, 

 through which water passes to the gill- 

 chamber, then out through the slits of 

 the gill-chamber into the body-cavity. 

 At is the opening from the body- 

 cavity to the surrounding world of 

 water. In the body-cavity we see, 

 besides the gill-chamber, certain other 

 organs, among them a number of 

 round bodies, e, which have been bud- 

 ded off from the inside of the animal's body. 

 These are reproductive cells, familiar to us under 



'it»6A 



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