606 
Mlarvels 
Photo by} (i. J. Shepstone. 
MANY-ARMED SUN-STAR. 
Of similar form to the Common Sun-star of our coasts, 
this species is seen to have more than 
of arms, 
twice the number 
of the Universe 
habit of 
not 1s a 
from the characteristic 
Whether this be so or 
question hard to decide, but interesting to 
structure 
its race. 
discuss. 
STARS OF THE SEA 
BY EDWARD STEP, F.L.S. 
THE poet Montgomery has said : 
“<The heavens 
[Are] thronged with constellations, and the seas 
Strown with their images ’’— 
which is probably an unconscious paraphrase of 
Link, the Leipzic apothecary, who, a hundred 
years earlier, wrote: “ As there are stars in the 
sky, so there are stars in the sea.’’ But the 
analogy will only stand in the domain of 
poetry, for alas! the matter-of-fact astronomer 
has proved that the stars of the heavens are 
not star-shaped, but mere spheres, whereas the 
Stars of the Sea are of true stellate form. The 
confusion caused in our language by the pro- 
gress of discovery is really serious ; small wonder that old-fashioned folk resent the new-fangled 
learning that overturns so much of the knowledge painfully acquired in youth. 
Here, for example, 
we have a large family of animals called Starfishes, because of their conformity to what for ages was 
understood to be the shape of the stars. 
organization is entirely different from that of the fishes ; 
Then the astronomer demonstrates by means of his telescope that stars are not 
erroneous. 
Photo by) 
[H. J. Shepstone. 
THE BRILLIANT STAR. 
A very beautiful Starfish found off the coasts of Mozam- 
bique, of a bright orange colour with red edges. 
First comes the naturalist with his objection that their 
so half of the name is shown to be 
stellate, and the other half is rendered mis- 
leading. 
dilemma but to fall back upon the artist, who 
will tell us that the actual forms of things are 
of little account ; what really matters is the 
There is nothing for us to do in this 
appearance presented to the unassisted eye, and 
no artist would dream of depicting a star other 
than asaradiate body. As for the fish element 
in our word, everybody knows that whatever 
lives in the sea is a fish, excepting the mer- 
maid, and she is a compromise. 
There are hundreds of different species of 
Sea-stars that girdle the 
British Isles yield more than half a hundred of 
distinct kinds—and we must have a compre- 
even the waters 
hensive vulgar name for them that will save 
our people from the necessity of speaking of 
them as asteroid and ophiuroid echinodermata. 
Let it be Sea-stars, then, a name that is suffi- 
ciently old, for Sir Thomas Browne speaks of 
the “ Stella Marine, or Sea-stars.”’ 
