ZOOPHYTES. 401 



shingle of the sea-floor, save when, on gala occasions 

 perchance, the Laomedeae that fringe the walls light up 

 their myriads of fairy lamps, and the tiny Medusce 

 crowd in to the watery festivities with their elfish 

 circlets and spangles of living flame. It is then that 

 the Cows' paps " take their hair out of paper," and dis- 

 play their loveliness to advantage. 



Unfortunately, we have no card of invitation to these 

 submarine routs, but perhaps we may induce one of the 

 more juvenile of these beauties to indulge us, as a 

 special favour, with a sample of the eff'ect ; particularly 

 if we can improvise a ball-room suited to the occasion. 

 Let us try. 



Selecting the very smallest specimen — a tiny thing 

 no larger than a pea— I try to detach it without injury, 

 by inserting the tip of my pocket-knife under the 

 frilled lamina of oyster-shell on which it rests, and 

 working off the fragment. I have succeeded : here it 

 is ; its attachment unbroken ; it is still firmly adherent 

 to the severed slice of shell, which is so small that I 

 can drop it with its burden into this narrow trough of 

 glass. The whole concern — trough, shell, and polype 

 — is now to be dropped into this capacious jar of freshly 

 dipped sea- water, and put away for an hour into a dark 

 closet. 



Now let us see the result. Yes, it is as I expected. 

 The united stimulus of the darkness and the sea-water 

 has acted on the Cow's pap, just as would the rising 

 and covering tide in its native cavern, after it had 

 been left exposed for some hours by the recess of the 



