BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 11 



" Plantse vegetantes floribus aniraatis.'^ His view- 

 seems to have been that the stems and branches of 

 the Corallines, &c., were vegetable in nature, but that 

 the Polyps were animals. 



As Linnaeus considered that animals were only 

 distinct from vegetables in the possession of a sentient 

 nervous system, with voluntary motion, he had little 

 difficulty in believing that the polyps were animals, 

 while the stems were vegetables, and yet that both 

 were one organism. The reason he gives for this view 

 is curious. He believed that motion of some kind was 

 enjoyed by all living beings. The plants on terra firma 

 enjoy the motion of the air; but, as in the depths of 

 the sea there is perfectly undisturbed quiet, the 

 Creator had endowed the terminal portions of the 

 Zoophytes with a nervous system and a power of 

 motion, that they might by their own motions partake 

 of that enjoyment, which the quiescent state of their 

 watery abode could not supply. 



The view of Linnaeus was adopted by Dr. Job Baster, 

 of Zurichsee in Zealand, who at first was vehemently 

 opposed to Ellis^ views, as is not surprising, seeing 

 that he did not know whatZoophytes were, and was 

 arguing from studies of Confervae. When, however, 

 he became better acquainted with the subject, he did 

 not like to recede altogether from the position he had 

 taken up, but adopted the classification and definition 

 of Linngeus as a compromise. 



Dr. Pallas also published a history of Zoophytes,* 



* This work, called " Elenclius Zoophytorum,'' was published at 

 the Hague in 1766, and is amost carefully and scientifically written 

 embodiment of the current knowledge of the species and charac- 

 teristics of the Zoophytes. 



