THE LASSO-THROWERS. 55 
covering the sea for miles and miles, so that a ship 
may sail through them during many days, the sailors 
watching their transparent domes by day, and being 
illuminated by the light of their phosphorescence by 
night Now as tiny jelly-bells, floating like glistening 
specks by millions in some quiet bay, and breaking into 
light as they are dashed upon the beach. Or again 
in the form of horny animal-trees often two or three 
feet in height, waving their gracefully arched branches 
over the rocks in the deep water, or creeping like 
delicate threads over shells and stones and seaweed on 
the shore, where they are often mistaken for plants. 
There is scarcely a nook or cranny in the bed of 
the ocean where some of these tree -like forms are 
not to be found, associated with the beautiful sea- 
anemones, with their brilliant colours of emerald 
green, crimson, glowing purple, and vivid orange, 
which belong to this same division, as does also the 
living coral nestling in the bosom of the warm Medi- 
terranean Sea, or struggling boldly against the waves 
of the Pacific, as branch after branch is added to its 
stem by the constant labours of the tiny jelly-polyps 
spreading their gaily coloured tentacles out of every 
cup of the coral tree. 
All these beautiful creatures are " lasso-throwers." 
Scientific men call them Ccelenterata or "hollow-bodied 
animals," because of the large cavity within their 
bodies, and divide them into Hydrozoa (water- 
animals) and Actinozoa (ray -like animals, such as 
the anemone), but for us it is sufficient to know that, 
with very few exceptions, they all seize their prey by 
means of the lasso, and we can pass on to learn 
something of how they pass their lives. 
