A Visit to Llandudno. 13 



others are in. The only way to proceed with such things is to 

 get a good general notion with a pocket lens, or three-inch 

 glass first, and then take the higher power, remembering that 

 no one view can possibly give a correct idea of the whole. The 

 long spines of the M. pilosa, for example, may be optically re- 

 duced to a little boss at their base, through all the rest being 

 out of focus and not seen. The observer must gradually focus 

 up and down, carrying in his eye what the glass at each move- 

 ment fails to reveal, and if this is carefully done a good many 

 times, a right conception of the object will be obtained. 



Returning from this digression to the Pedicellina echinata, 

 I will now introduce the reader to a curious polyzoon not 

 uncommon, but interesting from its departure from the more 

 usual patterns of the class to which he belongs. 



The Pedicellince may be rudely compared to the short 

 flexible sticks with knobbed ends, called " life-preservers," and 

 the present species (echinata) has spines down the aforesaid 

 stick. Most of the polyzoa * have long tentacles, which are 

 always stiffer than those of the polyps, and furnished with cilia 

 that are readily seen. Were we only acquainted with the long 

 tentacled kinds, we might imagine that short tentacles would 

 not suffice to do enough food-catching to keep one alive ; and 

 this may be the case in situations where their prey is scarce ; 

 but there are places in which polyps can live whose tentacles, 

 as in the Corynas, are reduced to mere knobs, and in which a 

 correspondingly stunted polyzoon gets on very well. I do not 

 know enough to assert that this food question settles the short- 

 tentacled difficulty, but the explanation is probable, and we 

 can easily conceive that long-armed polyps and polyzoa might 

 nourish where shorter armed species would starve. 



Some of my Pedicellince pursed up their mouths by keep- 

 ing their tentacles in, others expanded themselves, as shown in 

 the sketch made by my wife, while others were content with an 

 intermediate state. They were the most lively I ever caught, 

 being in constant motion, thumping about in all directions, 

 sometimes coming down right and left with hammer-like blows 

 at nothing, at others executing a spiral manoeuvre, and giving 

 a corkscrew wriggle to their stout flexible stems, which were 

 ornamented with occasional spines. They were far from ner- 

 vous, and did not mind coming into contact with other bodies, 

 and must have been troublesome neighbours to the more timid 

 and quietly disposed inhabitants of the various cells in whose 

 vicinity they lived and banged about. 



There was frequent motion in their tentacles, and for a 

 moment one set were fully spread out ; but after watching them 



* See my paper, Intellectual Observer, Yol. II., p. 271, on the "Stato- 

 blasta of a Plumatella," for some general remarks on these creatures. 



