Seaside Natural History 



9i 



individuals inhabiting the cups — to use the language of zoolo- 

 gists, " the persons " — are of two different forms. The large 

 majority of them form polypes not much unlike those which 

 build coral, and closely allied to the common freshwater Hydra. 

 They do not grow beyond a certain small size, and as a rule 

 live out their lives on the stem where they were born. A far 

 different destiny awaits the minority, the large flask-shaped 

 bodies. These, when well-grown, break off from the parent 

 stem, swim free in the water, swell themselves by the formation 

 beneath their skins of an enormous quantity of glass-like jelly, 

 acquire complex organs, and, in fact, become Medusoids, or 

 Swimming Bells. The whole process of their wonderful trans- 

 formation is one of great detail and intricacy, and we shall have 

 much to say about it in the future. For the present we trust 

 that we have said enough to show that it is of surpassing in- 

 terest, and at the same time to make our plate intelligible. 



It is, perhaps, desirable to add that the term " Coralline " is 

 a popular and not a scientific one. It has until recently been 

 allowed to include all structures allied to that now under con- 

 sideration. Of late, however, it has been claimed by botanists 

 (perhaps unfortunately) for a single group of calcareous sea- 

 weeds. 



GOSSE ON THE SHORE-BEETLE. 



From Gosse's " Ocean" p. 23. 



"Our own shores swarm with little creatures of many 

 kinds, some so small as to escape the eye of any one but a 

 naturalist, which yet are well worthy of being examined and 

 studied. Take one example. Walking along a sea-beach 

 where the loose shingle rattles under the retiring waves, we 

 may find a minute beetle known to entomologists by the 

 name of Aepus fulvescens, whose habits may well excite our 

 astonishment. Formed, like all other beetles, to breathe air 

 alone, it deserts the haunts of its fellows and betakes itself 

 to the sea, choosing to dwell among the pebbles so low down 

 on the beach that the water covers it constantly, except for 



