122 POPULAR HISTORY OF THE AQUARIUM. 



a central tank in the Zoological Gardens, at about the same 

 time that Mr. W. A. Lloyd procured the Zoophyte in some 

 numbers from the coast of North "Wales. Specimens of 

 the latter may now be seen at the Zoological Society's fish- 

 house, and at the establishment of Mr. Lloyd, in the Port- 

 land-road. My figure is taken from one of that gentle- 

 man^s finest specimens, which had made its covering under 

 his own observation. The worm had been removed, and, 

 after a few days, was found secreting its slime, which gra- 

 dually became opaque and thick. It is of a dull greyish- 

 purple colour, and looks like very ragged leather hanging 

 in shreds in many places. It is open at both ends, and 

 it appears to be the habit of this Zoophyte to leave the 

 hinder extremity uncovered : I noticed this in all the spe- 

 cimens. Mr. Lorbes remarks that the creature is very vo- 

 racious, crawling about, when divested of its covering, and 

 attacking everything it came in contact with. I do not 

 know whether it was an instance of this that we witnessed 

 at Lloyd^s. There were a number of specimens in a shal- 

 low pan, some in and some out of their hlanhets ; one fellow 

 in the latter state had been crawling slowly about round 

 the pan, when presently we noticed that he had come in 

 contact with an Actinia : their tentacles were all engaged, 



