62 THE MOSS-ANIMALS, 
sion, forcing it first to one end, and then back again to 
the other, from which it entered, until the particles are 
all crushed and reduced to a pulp. These violent con- 
vulsions also serve another purpose; they squeeze the — 
nutritious matter, resulting from digestion, out through — 
the membranes of the stomach into the cavity of the tube 
and cell, where it becomes mingled with the blood, and 
is carried off to give health and strength to the body. 
We have spoken of the plumes being withdrawn, in 
one of the colonies figured, and, though it has been 
only casually mentioned, this habit is the greatest obstacle 
to the observer while endeavoring to study their form. If 
the table be shaken ever so lightly, every unfolded crown 
vanishes, and often half an hour or more elapses before 
continued quiet allures them forth. 
All the finely proportioned, transparent parts are bal- 
anced upon a fold of the wall of the tube (fig. 5, B), 
which is retained in its place inside of the cell by many 
muscles, like fine hairs, attached by one end to the fold, 
and by the other to the cell wall (fig. 4, N, N', fig. 5, N). 
A continuation of the fold-membrane carpets the whole 
interior of the cell (fig. 4, 5, E), and to it are attached, 
near the lower end, the muscular fibres which drag the 
crown and the more delicate external parts into its “shol 
ter, at the approach of danger (fig. 4, M). The muscles 
are arranged in great broad bands rising in two trunks, 
“tie one spreading out above into numerous smaller 
s. These branches are attached to the stomach, 
ta pat and disc near the mouth, and one of them to the 
wall of the tube not far from the base of the veil (fig. 4, 
M.M, M"). They are diaphanous, but their delicate as- 
pect is no measure of eie Tai They jerk the 
crown and outer acs within tl —— e than the eye 
