30 HISTOHY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



every one who had a respect for the memory of the de- 

 ceased brought a stone to add to the heap. Yery willingly 

 then would we, as a humble member of the Zoophytic 

 clan, add our stone to the cairn of the chieftains that have 

 gone before us, and if in our poverty we have nothing fresh 

 to contribute, we will lift the stone Avhich our masters have 

 added, and having held it up and looked at it with reverence, 

 we shall respectfully return it to the venerable cairn. In 

 this brief sketch, as in almost everything else in this Httle 

 work, I shall chiefly draw from my respected friend Dr. George 

 Jolmston, whose admirable work on British Zoophytes is so 

 well known and so much valued in the scientific world. 



Those natural productions to which our attention is to be 

 directed were called zoophytes, it is probable, at a time when 

 it was thought by many that they were a connecting link 

 betwixt the animal and the vegetable kingdoms ; that though 

 it could no longer be denied that they contained animals, 

 yet that they were indebted for their growth to an inherent 

 principle of vegetation. The name, though no longer re- 

 garded as ai)propriate in this sense, may still be retained as 

 suitable for some of them at least, as having the outward 

 appearance of sea-plants, but being in reality formed by the 

 little polypes inhabiting their numerous tubes or cells. 



