INTRODUCTION. li 



when each one of its thousand transparent calycles, itself 

 a study of form, is crowned by a circlet of beaded arms, 

 drooping over its margin, like the petals of a flower, offers 

 a rare combination of the elements of beauty. 



The rocky wall of some deep tidal pool, thickly studded 

 with the long and slender stems of Tubularia, surmounted 

 by the bright rose-coloured heads, is like the gay parterre 

 of a garden. Equally beautiful is the dense growth of 

 Campanularia, covering (as I have seen it in Plymouth 

 Sound) large tracts of the rock, its delicate shoots swaying 

 to and fro with each movement of the water, like trees in 

 a storm or the colony of Obelia on the waving frond of 

 the tangle, looking almost ethereal in its grace, trans- 

 parency, and delicacy, as seen against the coarse dark sur- 

 face that supports it. 



But, besides the remarkable beauty, there is a charm in 

 the life-story of these beings. " There must always be a 

 certain fascination in a history which tells us of animals 

 composed of multitudes of individuals (zooids) living an 

 associated life, and so combining as to produce the most 

 graceful plant-like structures vegetating like a tree 

 putting forth thousands of polypites, like leaves, each a 

 provider for the commonwealth putting forth also a com- 

 pany of buds, charged with the perpetuation of the species, 

 ripening in transparent urns and scattering their winged 

 seeds broadcast, or sent forth, moulded and painted by 

 the highest art, like fairy emigrant-ships freighted with 

 young life, to colonize distant seas. And these are the 

 simple facts of nature"*. 



* Vide an article by the author, entitled " Zoophytes : the History of their 

 Development," in the Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. ii. no. 7, p. 416. 



