LESSON XXXVI.
FLOWERS OF THE SEA.
An Ocean Garden.
An Ocean Garden.
There are flowers in the sea as well as on the land. Under the waves of the ocean are fields of green sea-grasses and groves of great sea-weeds like trees. Diving-men go down to the sea-bottom and walk about. They often find it hard to move in the tall weeds. The weeds tangle the men’s feet. The divers feel as you would among the brush andvines of a great wood. There are splendid sea-plants of all colors,—red, pink, white, green, brown, purple, yellow, and orange.
The leaves of these sea-plants are of many shapes. They are round or long; they are flat or curly. Some are cut into fine fingers; many are like fringes; they have spots, dots, or knobs upon them that shine like silver and gold.
The sea has also another kind of flowers. These are animals or fishes that look more like lovely flowers than like any other thing. We call them sea-flowers or animal-flowers. We name some of them after dainty little plants that grow in the woods in spring.
The name “flowers” which we give to these is only a pretty fancy. You must knowthat really they are a kind of animal. It is, then, flower-animals that we shall now study for a few lessons.
You have read of animals made upon a ring pattern; these flower-animals are made upon a star pattern.
The pattern on which they are made is very simple (see cut), and yet it is so built upon and changed that the members of this Family are among the most lovely of animals.
These animal-plants have, from their odd and pretty shapes, such names as the sunflower, the aster, the fern, the crown, the fan, the pen, and so on. I will now tell you about one of them.
Early one day I went from my door to the beach, which was near, and there I saw a lovely object.
The water was very still and clear, and floating in it was something all rose and cream color.
This pretty thing was as large as a very large dinner-plate. It was not flat, but shaped like half an orange, with the rounded side up. It was of a fine rose color, and as clear as jelly. It looked much like pink jelly.
From the centre of the top to the edge went lines of a deeper pink. There were also dots around theouter edge. This edge seemed to have a soft full ruffle of cream color about it. Looking closer, I saw that the under side was not flat. It was shaped like a bell or an open parasol. It had something which looked like long leaves, and which opened and shut.
But this was not all that I saw. From the darker lines on the upper part of the bell ran out long pink arms. These were almost a yard long. Their edges had full ruffles. They were of a cream color, like soft lace.
These long arms hung down in the water, which spread out their pretty edges. With a soft and gentle motion they waved from side to side.
In my boat I went quietly near this creature. It floated here and there, spread out in all its beauty. I kept near it to watch it. This lovely thing was a jelly-fish.
Fig. 1.Fig. 2.Fig. 3.
Fig. 1.Fig. 2.Fig. 3.
It was easy to see that the creature was of a star pattern, but it had four, and not five rays. Its planwas like Figure 1. If these rays are bent down, you will see that they may form the frame of a bell-shape, like Figure 2. The ends of these four rays often run out into arms, like Figure 3. All the soft pink-and-cream jelly-like stuff fills up between the upper part of the rays and gathers into the ruffles along the edge.
This is the plan on which the jelly-fish is built. His frame is built of four rays. The four parts between the rays may be again divided and be eight and not four. Again, there may be sixteen rays instead of eight. But the plan is the same.