ESCHARID^. 331 



This scarcely ever failed to excite a considerable movement among 

 them, and evidently with the object of freeing themselves. In a 

 small piece, which was taken out of water and placed on blotting- 

 paper, the movement of these organs was clearly visible for a few 

 seconds by the naked eye. 



" In the case of the vulture -heads, as well as in that of the bristles, 

 all that were on one side of a branch, moved sometimes coinstantane- 

 ously, sometimes in regular order one after the other; at other 

 times the organs on both sides the branch moved together; but 

 generally all were independent of each other, and entirely so of the 

 polypi. In the Crisia, if the bristles were excited to move by irrita- 

 tion in any one branch, generally the whole zoophyte was affected. 

 In the instance where the branch started from the simultaneous 

 movement of these appendages, we see as perfect a transmission of 

 will as in a single animal. The case, indeed, is not different from 

 that of the sea-pen, which when touched drew itself into the sand. 

 I will state one other instance of uniform action, though of a very 

 different nature, in a zoophyte* closely allied to Clytia, and therefore 

 very simply organized. Having kept a large tuft of it in a basin of 

 salt water, when it was dark I found that as often as I rubbed any 

 part of a branch, the whole became strongly phosphorescent with a 

 green light ; I do not think I ever saw any object more beautifully 

 so. But the remarkable circumstance was, that the flashes of light 

 always proceeded up the branches, from the base towards the ex- 

 tremities. 



" The examination of these compound animals was always very 

 interesting to me. What can be more remarkable than to see a 

 plant-like body producing an egg, furnished with setae, and having 

 independent movements, which soon becomes fixed, branches into 

 numberless arms, and there, though crowded with polypi, yet in 

 some cases possessing independent organs of movement, and obeying 

 uniform impulses of will ? The polypi are frequently animals of no 

 simple organization ; and in most respects certainly are to be con- 

 sidered as true individuals. It is therefore more curious to observe, 

 in the young and terminal cells, their gradual formation, from the 

 growth of the simple horny substance of which so many zoophytes 

 are composed. The known organization of a tree should remove all 

 surprise at the union of many individuals together, and their relation 

 to a common body. Indeed we might expect, according to the ap- 



* " This coralline emitted a very strong and disagreeable odour, when freshly taken 

 from the sea." 



