Page:First course in biology (IA firstcourseinbio00bailrich).pdf/267

 does not produce a hydroid, but a jellyfish; the egg of the jellyfish does not produce a jellyfish, but a hydroid. This is called by zoologists, alternation of generations. A complete individual is the life from the germination of one egg to the production of another. So that an "individual" consists of a hydroid colony fixed in one place together with all the jellyfish produced from its buds, and which may now be floating miles away from it in the ocean. Bathers in the surf are sometimes touched and stung by the long, streamer-like tentacles of the jellyfish. These, like the tentacles of the hydra, have nettling cells (Fig. 41).

The umbrella-shaped free swimming jellyfish is called a medusa (Fig. 44).

Coral Polyps.—Some of the salt water relatives of the hydra produce buds which remain attached to the parent without, however, becoming different from the parent in any way. The coral polyps and corallines are examples of colonies of this kind,possessing a common stalk which is formed as the process of multiplication goes on. In the case of coral polyps, the separate animals and the flesh connecting them secrete within themselves a hard, limy, supporting structure known as coral. In some species, the coral, or stony part, is so developed that the polyp seems to be inserted in the coral, into which it withdraws itself for partial protection (Fig. 45).

(tentacles, a multiple of six). Notice hypostome.

The corallines secrete a smooth stalk which affords no protection, but they also secrete a coating or sheath which incloses both themselves and the stalk. The