66 POPULAR HISTORY OF THE AQUARIUM. 



action, free of all the other parts. Each lobe, each hydra, 

 each of the pectinate tentacula, and each of their prongs, 

 can move at will, while the whole of the rest of the Zoophyte 

 is quiescent ; therefore, in a specimen with the bone extend- 

 ing eighteen inches, above a million of separate fleshy parts 

 are under the common control of the Zoophyte/^ It is of 

 course very difficult to understand where can be the seat 

 of this common control, or in what manner the central 

 power of volition can be exercised. But when we reflect 

 that the only motions of which this animal is known to 

 be capable are a kind of excentric twist round its own 

 axis, and a certain amount of puffy inflation of its parts, 

 it does not present a very favourable view of separate 

 o-overnment. It is rather calculated to remind us that 



o 



too much independent action among individual members 

 of a body politic is unfavourable to the development of 

 corporate power : we will not point to practical illustra- 

 tions of this. 



Payonaria quadrangularis. 



This is another of the living rods of the ocean. It is 

 invested with a fleshy skin, and has rows of polypes along 

 its sides ; those at the lower part of the rod are in a single 



