V1RGULARIA. 201 



Nothing ienables us to indulge the slightest conjecture of 

 its use. We can hardly allow its protective utility, for it 

 seems scarcely calculated for supporting itself." In other 

 respects there are mysteries in this beautiful creature, which 

 the most acute naturalists have been unable to fathom. 

 " Each organ," says Sir J. G. Dalyell, " of this remarkable 

 object, has a distinct action, free of all the other parts. 

 Each lobe, each hydra, each of the pectinate tentacula, and 

 each of their prongs, can move at will, while the whole of 

 the rest of the zoophyte is quiescent. Therefore, in a spe- 

 cimen with the bone extending eighteen inches, above a 

 million of separate fleshy parts are under the common con- 

 trol of the zoophyte." " But how this control is exercised, 

 or how its effect is imparted, is not easily explained. The 

 flesh of the Virgularia enjoys some peculiar power of wind- 

 ing as a spiral around the central bone, while thousands of 

 hydrse, independent so far as to testify individual action, 

 are incorporated with it. What a marvellous work of the 

 creation \" 



" These are thy glorious works, Parent of Good, 

 Almighty ! Thine this universal frame, 

 Thus wondrous fair ; Thyself how wondrous then ! 

 Unspeakable, who sitt'st above these heavens, 

 To us invisible, or dimly seen 



