And in foreign seas there are many other branched star-fish beside.
But they have no stalks?
Do not be too sure of that.

This very feather-star, soon after it is born, grows a tiny stalk, by which it holds on to corallines and sea-weeds; and it is not till afterwards that it breaks loose from that stalk, and swims away freely into the wide water.

And in foreign seas there are several star-fish still who grow on stalks all their lives, as this fossil one did.
How strange that a live animal should grow on a stalk, like a flower! Not quite like a flower.

A flower has roots, by which it feeds in the soil.

These things grow more like sea-weeds, which have no roots, but only hold on to the rock by the foot of the stalk, as a ship holds on by her anchor.