Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/193

Scattered along the sea-shore, mingled with sea-weed, parasitic on shells, fragments of rock, or marine plants, the visitor will certainly observe a variety of curious, unobtrusive objects, which, at first sight, will seem to have but little to recommend them to his notice. It was to these that the poet Crabbe alluded when he wrote—

But science, no longer doubting, regards them as animals, having the appearance of plants, and calls them zoophytes, placing them low in the scale of animal existence. The majority of these consist of a horny sheath, exceedingly variable in size and form, which is termed the polypidom, or home of the polypes, because it encloses within it the hydra-like animal or polypus. These polypidoms are usually, when dried, of a horny texture, and of a dirty yellowish-white colour. Each frond-like polypidom contains numerous cavities in which the animals are fixed, so that one frond is a perfect colony. Of the animals themselves some idea may be formed by those who have seen the common freshwater hydra, only that these marine hydræ have a larger number of arms or tentacles; often twenty or more.

There is, for instance, the Tubularia indivisa, or "Oaten Pipe Coralline" of the Frith of Forth, an animal product resembling a flourishing vegetable, dwelling at the depth of thirty or forty feet under the surface of the sea, with a living head resembling a fine scarlet blossom, and often drooping in a pendent cluster, like grapes; having, in fact, the ornamental aspect of a bouquet of vivid flowers, fresh from the hand of nature (fig. 1). These creatures, by the way, are generally found on shells, entire or decayed—empty or tenanted. A brilliant group was on one occasion seen on a shell carried along by the crawling inhabitant. The reproductive powers of these zoophytes are deeply interesting to the naturalist, who can now so readily domesticate them for observation in the aquarium. But long before this popular drawing-room illustration of living nature was known or though of, I knew an enthusiast, the late Sir John Graham Dalyell, Bart., who, by means of glass vessels filled with sea-water, from the size of a watch-glass upwards, carried on for years the most curious practical observations of the mysteries enveloping this kind of animal life. Sir John retained artists to figure and delicately colour the appearances of his zoophytes; the results were given in two elaborate, profusely-illustrated quarto volumes, privately printed, however, and note likely to be in the hands of many; and the fastidious

anxiety evinced for scientific accuracy renders these artistic representations almost as acceptable as the living specimens. The Branched Pipe Coralline (Tubularia ramea) especially excited his admiration. This he pronounced "a splendid animal production—one of the most singular, interesting, and beautiful amongst the boundless works of nature." Sometimes,

he adds, it resembles a splendid tree, blighted amidst the war of elements, or withered by the deep corrosions of time; sometimes it resembles a vigor-