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                            SEASIDE STUDIES

                                  IN

                            NATURAL HISTORY.

                                  BY

                          ELIZABETH C. AGASSIZ

                                 AND

                           ALEXANDER AGASSIZ.



                   MARINE ANIMALS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

                               RADIATES.

                             [Illustration]



                                BOSTON:
                      JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,
            LATE TICKNOR & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO.

                                 1871.






      Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by
                   A L E X A N D E R  A G A S S I Z,
              in the Clerk's Office of the District Court
                  for the District of Massachusetts.





                           UNIVERSITY PRESS:
                     WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY,
                              CAMBRIDGE.






                            THIS LITTLE BOOK
              IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHORS TO
                          PROFESSOR L. AGASSIZ,
            WHOSE PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION HAVE BEEN THE MAIN
                         GUIDE IN ITS PREPARATION.


       *       *       *       *       *




PREFACE.


This volume is published with the hope of supplying a want often
expressed for some seaside book of a popular character, describing the
marine animals common to our shores. There are many English books of
this kind; but they relate chiefly to the animals of Great Britain,
and can only have a general bearing on those of our own coast, which
are for the most part specifically different from their European
relatives. While keeping this object in view, an attempt has also been
made to present the facts in such a connection, with reference to
principles of science and to classification, as will give it in some
sort the character of a manual of Natural History, in the hope of
making it useful not only to the general reader, but also to teachers
and to persons desirous of obtaining a more intimate knowledge of the
subjects discussed in it. With this purpose, although nearly all the
illustrations are taken from among the most common inhabitants of our
bay, a few have been added from other localities in order to fill out
this little sketch of Radiates, and render it, as far as is possible
within such limits, a complete picture of the type.

A few words of explanation are necessary with reference to the joint
authorship of the book. The drawings and the investigations, where
they are not referred to other observers, have been made by MR. A.
AGASSIZ, the illustrations having been taken, with very few
exceptions, from nature, in order to represent the animals, as far as
possible, in their natural attitudes; and the text has been written by
MRS. L. AGASSIZ, with the assistance of MR. A. AGASSIZ's notes and
explanations.

CAMBRIDGE, May, 1865.


       *       *       *       *       *


NOTE.

This second edition is a mere reprint of the first. A few mistakes
accidentally overlooked have been corrected; an explanation of the
abbreviations of the names of writers used after the scientific names
has been added, as well as a list of the wood-cuts. The changes which
have taken place in the opinions of scientific men with regard to the
distribution of animal life in the ocean have been duly noticed in
their appropriate place, but no attempt has been made to incorporate
more important additions which the progress of our knowledge of
Radiates may require hereafter.

CAMBRIDGE, January, 1871.


       *       *       *       *       *




  CONTENTS.


                                                                 PAGE

  ON RADIATES IN GENERAL                                            1

  GENERAL SKETCH OF THE POLYPS                                      5

  ACTINOIDS                                                         7

  MADREPORIANS                                                     16

  HALCYONOIDS                                                      19

  GENERAL SKETCH OF ACALEPHS                                       21

  CTENOPHORAE                                                       26

  EMBRYOLOGY OF CTENOPHORAE                                         34

  DISCOPHORAE                                                       37

  HYDROIDS                                                         49

  MODE OF CATCHING JELLY-FISHES                                    85

  ECHINODERMS                                                      91

  HOLOTHURIANS                                                     95

  ECHINOIDS                                                       101

  STAR-FISHES                                                     108

  OPHIURANS                                                       115

  CRINOIDS                                                        120

  EMBRYOLOGY OF ECHINODERMS                                       123

  DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE IN THE OCEAN                               141

 