116 POLYPES, OR ZOOPHYTES. 



of animal and vegetable existence have approached so 

 near, that it requires the exercise of nicer tests than 

 the eye to discriminate between them. We arrive at a 

 point where the dry definitions of science cease to speak 

 an intelligible language, and where the presence of the 

 Unseen Worker begins to be felt. 



In the history of the Sponges we find beings occupy- 

 ing nearly a middle rank between plants and animals, 

 though necessarily considered as belonging to the latter. 

 To such the term Zoophytes, or animal plants, might 

 properly be given. This name is, however, commonly 

 restricted by Naturalists to another group, clearly ani- 

 mal in their nature, but which exhibit a skeleton often 

 branched like a plant, and bearing bodies I'esembling 

 seed-vessels and flowers. I have incidentally alluded to 

 these in a former chapter, and shall now enter into their 

 history a little further. The rocky sea-shore will supply 

 numerous species of this group of animals, from the 

 fleshy Sea Anemone, the largest and most highly organ- 

 ized of our native species, to the minute scaly Lepralia, 

 which forms shagreened patches on the surface of rocks, 

 shells, and sea-weeds. All the true Corals, including 

 the precious coral of commerce and the Mushroom-Corals 

 which ornament the cabinets of the curious, together 

 with the horny, moss-like Sertula-rice of our own shores, 

 are skeletons of the Zoophytes. The animals which 

 inhabit them are termed Polypes, and are either single 

 and solitary, as in the case of the Sea Anemone, or form 

 a compound body, several individuals being connected 

 together by a fleshy column, common to them all, 

 through which a more or less perfect circulation is 



