o8) 
“I 
THE MARINE AQUARIUM. 
Among the Zoophytes we meet with many of the crea- | 
tures which have the greatest attraction for the student of | 
the Aquarium. The brooks supply him with the curious | 
hydra, the seven-headed monster that perpetuates one of 
the triumphs of Hercules—withal a beautiful and won- 
drous creature, that may be cut in pieces, turned inside 
out, or even thrust one animal within the other, and still 
remain the same. The sea supplies the madrepores, the 
builders of ocean-reefs, and the founders of islands and 
continents; as it also supplies the sea anemones of more 
than a hundred species, from the curious Hdwardsia 
vestita, here figured, from the first seen in this country, at 
present in the collection of Mr. Alford Lloyd, to the 
familiar members of the genus Actinia, obtainable every- | 
where on our coasts. 
The true Zoophytes have all, more or less, the plant- 
like form, and they readily separate into two great classes, 
namely, the Anthozoa, or flower-life, and the Polyzoa, 
or many-life, in which the individuals are associated 
together in numbers. They are all inhabitants of water, 
are all destitute of joints, lungs, nerves, and proper 
blood-vessels ; but in the place of nerves possess what 
naturalists call an irritable system, in obedience to which 
they expand or contract at will. At the upper part of 
the body is situated the mouth, which is usually sur- 
rounded with tentacles, which are mostly used in securing 
prey. There is no alimentary duct, for the stomach has 
the form of a simple sac, the aliment being injected and 
ejected by the same orifice. 
The Anthozoa comprise animals which are perfect in 
