64 HISTORY OF BEITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



so that they comprehend under the term Zoophyte, star- 

 fishes, sea-urchins, sea-jellies, etc. By British naturalists it 

 is employed in a much more limited sense. At first, as we 

 have already said, it was employed as the name for creatures 

 which from their form were thought to be the connecting 

 link betwixt the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and to par- 

 take of the nature of both. The name was still retained 

 after it had been ascertained that the creatures were de- 

 cidedly animal, and partook in no degree of a vegetable na- 

 ture. The name, no doubt, originated in the great resem- 

 blance which many of them bear to shrubs, mosses, lichens, 

 and seaweeds, but it includes many where there is no such 

 resemblance, hinging upon their being polypiferous. And 

 it now excludes many included by early writers, such as 

 corallines, lithophytes, and nullipores, first, because they 

 were not inhabited by polypes, and now, because they are 

 known to be vegetables. Sponges also are excluded, for 

 though the ancients thought they were sensitive creatures, 

 and modern naturalists are beginning to allow that they are 

 endowed with life, yet as nothing like polypes has been seen 

 inhabiting them, they are not ranked under the name of 

 Zoophytes. " Zoophytes/' says Dr. Johnston, " are all aqua- 

 tic, avertebrate, inarticulate, soft, irritable, and contractile, 



