21 



the student of Natural History, and the general advance- 

 ment of the science, 1 think I need not apologise for 

 bringing forward before the meeting my humble quota to 

 the work in the present paper, which may be considered 

 a continuation of the subject treated of so ably by Mr. 

 Hillier, and will embrace some account of the other marine 

 zoophytes of this shore : the class, namely, of the Coral- 

 lines, comprising the Hydroid zoophytes and the VoUjzoa. 

 As, no doubt, some specimens of this class hare been 

 obtained to-day in the dredging and shore-collecting expe- 

 ditions, I trust it may be useful to those who are desirous 

 of knowing something about what they have found to give 

 an enumeration of the various species to be met with in 

 this locality, together with a slight sketch of their Natural 

 History. But as an account, however brief, of the whole 

 of our marine species would occupy too much of the time 

 and attention of my audience, I must limit myself for the 

 present to a description of the shore species only : thosr , 

 that is, which are to be found living and growing between 

 tide-marks. And I can assure my hearers that although 

 our coast is not peculilarly rich in zoophytes we 

 have species enough to occupy the naturalist for 

 many weeks, only tj discover and discriminate them, 

 and to a£ford him many weeks more of interesting 

 research in the microscopic study of their structure, func- 

 tions, and life-history. There are many here present who 

 cannot be supposed to have any previous acquaintance with 

 the subject of which I am about to treat ; and I will there- 

 fore prefix a brief account of the general structure of these 

 animals to the description of the particular species. What 

 is a zoophyte .' In its simplest form a zoophyte or polyp 

 consists of a minute sac or bag of jelly-like substance, as 

 shown here in the hydra or fresh water polyp, having a 

 mouth at one end, surrounded by a circle of contractile 

 threads or tentacles, for the purpose of seizing its prey ; 

 and provided with an adhesive disk at the other extremity, 

 by which it \i enabled to attach itself to any llxed object. 



