38 POPULAR HISTORY OF THE AQUARIUM. 



Dublin Bay^ Cornwall, Aberdeenshire, and near Liverpool. 

 It is so exactly like a leafless tree in appearance, that, until 

 closely examined and the polypes seen, it would be taken 

 for a plant by any one not thoroughly acquainted with the 

 nature of Zoophytes. It grows from three to six inches 

 high, and is thus spoken of by the late Sir J. G. Dalyell : — 



" This is a splendid animal production, one of the most 

 singular, beautiful, and interesting among the boundless 

 works of Nature. Sometimes it resembles an aged tree, 

 blighted amidst the war of elements, or withered by the 

 deep corrosions of time. Sometimes it resembles a vigorous 

 flowering shrub in miniature, rising with a dark brown 

 stem, and diverging into numerous boughs, branches, and 

 twigs, terminating in so many hydrse, wherein red and 

 yellow intermixed afford a fine contrast to the whole. 



"The glowing colours of the one, and the venerable 

 aspect of the other, their intricate parts often laden with 

 proHfic fruit, and their numberless tenants, all highly pic- 

 turesque, are equally calculated to attract our adniiration 

 to the Creative Power displayed throughout the universe ; 

 and to sanction the character of this product as one of 

 uncommon interest and beauty. 



" A very fine specimen of the Tubiilaria ramea [Euden 



