ZOOPHYTA BRITANNICA. 



ORDER I. 

 Z. HYDROIDA. 



Character. 

 Polypes compound, rarely single and naked, the mouth encir- 

 cled ivith roughishjiliform tentacida ; stomach without proper pa- 

 rietes ; intestine ; anus ; reproductive gemmules pullulating 



from the body and naked, or contained in external vesicles. 



Polypidoms horny, Jistular, more or less phytoidal, fixed, external. 



Observations. 



" As for your pretty little seed-cups or vases, they are a 

 sweet confirmation of the pleasure Nature seems to take in su- 

 peradding an elegance of form to most of her works, wherever 

 you find them. How poor and bungling are all the imitations 

 of art ! When I have the pleasure of seeing you next, we will 

 sit down, nay kneel down if you will, and admire these things."*" 

 Thus did Hogarth — our great moral painter — write to Ellis in 

 evident reference to the zoophytes of the present order ; and he 

 must indeed be more than ordinarily dull and insensate who can 

 examine them without catching some of the enthusiasm of the 

 artist. They excel all other zoophytical productions in delica- 

 cv and the graceful arrangement of their forms, some borrowing 

 the character of the prettiest marine plants, others assuming the 

 semblance of the ostrich-plume, while the variety and elegance 

 exhibited in the figures and sculpture of their miniature cups 

 and chalices is only limited by the number of their species. 



The Hydroida vary from a few lines to upwards of a foot in 



* Lin. Corresp. Vol. ii. p. 44. 

 F 



