"Sea Ginger" is a word in ENGLISH
A hydroid coral of the genus Millepora, especially M.
alcicornis, of the West Indies and Florida. So called because it stings
the tongue like ginger. See Illust. under Millepore.
In the cage is the lion. She paces with her memories. Her body is a record of her past. As she moves back and forth, one may see it all: the lean frame, the muscular legs, the paw enclosing long sharp claws, the astonishing speed of her response. She was born in this garden. She has never in her life stretched those legs. Never darted farther than twenty yards at a time. Only once did she use her claws. Only once did she feel them sink into flesh. And it was her keeper's flesh. Her keeper whom she loves, who feeds her, who would never dream of harming her, who protects her. Who in his mercy forgave her mad attack, saying this was in her nature, to be cruel at a whim, to try to kill what she loves. He had come into her cage as he usually did early in the morning to change her water, always at the same time of day, in the same manner, speaking softly to her, careful to make no sudden movement, keeping his distance, when suddenly she sank down, deep down into herself, the way wild animals do before they spring, and then she had risen on all her strong legs, and swiped him in one long, powerful, graceful movement across the arm. How lucky for her he survived the blow. The keeper and his friends shot her with a gun to make her sleep. Through her half-open lids she knew they made movements around her. They fed her with tubes. They observed her. They wrote comments in notebooks. And finally they rendered a judgment. She was normal. She was a normal wild beast, whose power is dangerous, whose anger can kill, they had said. Be more careful of her, they advised. Allow her less excitement. Perhaps let her exercise more. She understood none of this. She understood only the look of fear in her keeper's eyes. And now she paces. Paces as if she were angry, as if she were on the edge of frenzy. The spectators imagine she is going through the movements of the hunt, or that she is readying her body for survival. But she knows no life outside the garden. She has no notion of anger over what she could have been, or might be. No idea of rebellion.It is only her body that knows of these things, moving her, daily, hourly, back and forth, back and forth, before the bars of her cage.
WORD SUGGESTIONS
A group of Coelenterata, including the Medusae or jellyfishes, and hydroids; -- so called from the stinging power they possess. …
Read the complete definitionA kind of embryo of certain hydroids (Tubularia), having a stellate form.
Read the complete definitionApplied to sexual zooids of hydroids, that have a saclike form and do not become free; -- opposed to phanerocodonic.
Read the complete definitionIn certain hydroids, an imperfect zooid, whose special function is to produce medusoid buds. See Hydroidea, and Athecata.
Read the complete definitionOne of the small cuplike cavities, often with elevated borders, covering the surface of most corals. Each is formed by …
Read the complete definitionA hydroid of the family ampanularidae, characterized by having the polyps or zooids inclosed in bell-shaped calicles or hydrothecae.
Read the complete definitionThe common soft tissue which unites the polyps of a compound hydroid. See Hydroidea.
Read the complete definitionThe hydroid or naked-eyed medusae. See Hydroidea.
Read the complete definitionPertaining to the interior of the stomach; -- applied to a mode of budding from the interior of the gastric …
Read the complete definitionAnimals which increase by budding, as hydroids.
Read the complete definitionA reproductive bud of a hydroid; a simple gonophore.
Read the complete definitionA sexual zooid produced as a medusoid bud upon a hydroid, sometimes becoming a free hydromedusa, sometimes remaining attached. See …
Read the complete definitionThe reproductive zooids of a hydroid colony, collectively.
Read the complete definitionA capsule developed on certain hydroids (Thecaphora), inclosing the blastostyle upon which the medusoid buds or gonophores are developed; -- …
Read the complete definitionA sexual zooid, or medusoid bud of a hydroid; a gonophore. See Hydroidea, and Illust. of Campanularian.
Read the complete definitionOne of numerous species of slender and delicate fossils, of the genus Graptolites and allied genera, found in the Silurian …
Read the complete definitionA group of acalephs, including the naked-eyed medusae; the hydromedusae. Most of them are known to be the free-swimming progeny …
Read the complete definitionAny small fresh-water hydroid of the genus Hydra, usually found attached to sticks, stones, etc., by a basal sucker.
Read the complete definitionAny species or marine hydroids, of the genus Hydractinia and allied genera. These hydroids form, by their rootstalks, a firm, …
Read the complete definitionOne of the nutritive zooids of a hydroid colony. Also applied to the proboscis or manubrium of a hydroid medusa. …
Read the complete definition