Now if you apply a low power of the microscope, you will find the little forest is made up of a strange animal called _Laomeda geniculata_. (_Fig. 1._) Each branch of this compound animal terminates and expands into a lovely vase and is the home of a polype. The polype is not a separate individual any more than the end of a growing branch is separate from the tree on which it grows. [Illustration: LAOMEDA.] When the creature is hungry he sends out from the margin of the vase from fifteen to twenty tentacles, ranged around the rim like the petals of a flower. _Figure 1_ shows one of these expanded polypes as seen through the microscope. The tentacles or feelers are fishing rods to bring game to the fleshy mouth which is protruded from the centre of the vase. A great many such mouths surrounded with their tentacles are necessary to feed this singular compound creature. All that I can tell you of these microscopic animals will be nothing compared to a study of them with your own eyes, so I will only give you hints of what you may expect, thereby hoping to create sufficient interest to induce you to stroll to out-of-the-way places, where you may find many of Nature's marvellous works. We want more field workers in every department of Natural History, and especially in microscopy where unexplored fields are awaiting you. When the tide has receded, various objects of interest will meet your eye at every step. Look at that old dead sea shell covered with a rough, shaggy nap. Ah, as we approach, the shell is moving off! What can it mean? Why, it means that a hermit crab has set up housekeeping in the old shell, and he, no doubt, thinks us suspicious characters and wants none of our company. But we are after microscopic objects now, and this hermit, interesting as he is, is not to claim our attention to-day. The rough coat on the outside of the shell is of more interest. With the aid of a pocket lens you will find it another zoophyte. You can see the polypes, as thick as they can well stand, rising erect and straight from the shaggy coat like a miniature field of wheat. With a higher power you will see that each mouth is surrounded with tentacles like those of _Laomeda_, but yet it is quite a different looking creature. If we touch one of these polypes ever so lightly, the great army immediately close their tentacles, for the same life pervades the entire colony, and those on the extreme outer edge feel the contact as quickly as the one we touched. [Illustration: LARES.]