THE LASSO-THROWERS. 61 
coloured gems set in its rim (b b> 3, Fig. 22). Blue, 
scarlet, orange, all the most vivid colours seem chosen 
to give them brilliancy, and inside the spots are in 
some cases to be found little grains of lime which 
roll to and fro and probably form the simplest hear- ' 
ing apparatus in nature, while some crystals which 
refract light are the first beginnings of eyes.* 
Is it too much to say that these minute jelly-bells 
are fearfully and wonderfully made, and that our 
imagination sinks appalled when we have to believe 
that such complex beings have sprung from the tiny 
buds on the animal-tree (i, Fig. 22) ? 
In the early summer the sea is full of these little 
bells rising like constant bubbles from the animal- 
forest below. Some are mere microscopic specks, 
others as large as thimbles, while some look like 
glass cups floating in the sea. They are all more or 
less tinted with lovely and delicate colours, and though 
an unpractised eye cannot distinguish them, yet they 
may be caught in a fine muslin net swept through 
the water and examined under a microscope, or in 
an aquarium ; while on a calm evening, when the sea 
breaks in ripples on the sand, their presence is 
betrayed by the glow of phosphorescence fringing 
the shore. 
" Figured by hand Divine, there's not a gem, 
Wrought by man's art, to be compared with them. 
Soft, brilliant, tender, through the wave they glow, 
And make the moonbeams brighter where they flow.** 
And now we will rest our eyes from straining to 
see the microscopic lasso-throwers and turn to some 
* In the higher forms of Medusae or jelly-fish the presence of nerves 
fca now been clearly proved by Hertwig, Romanes, Schafer, and others. 
