DEEP-WATER ZOOPHYTES. 87 



a while, according to the judgment of the operator, 

 the dredge is hauled up, and the proceeds examined. 

 For this purpose the rope is shifted to the middle of 

 the boat, and the contents of the dredge are emptied 

 out. 



Our success was not very encouraging. We made 

 three hauls, and brought up a few oysters, which 

 were tolerably good. Some of them were evidently 

 old fellows, so old that we conjectured that they might 

 possibly have been among the original fathers of the 

 colony. The rough and laminated shells of these 

 were studded with small seaweeds and zoophytes, and 

 several of those agile creatures, the brittlestars, were 

 sprawling their long flexible limbs, like so many snake- 

 tails, over their surfaces. Some of the zoopkytes I 

 preserved for microscopical examination when I should 

 arrive at home ; and their elegant forms and curious 

 structure well repaid the observation. 



Among them was the beautiful Plumularia Catha- 

 rina. This zoophyte, which may be taken as the 

 representative of an extensive family, grows up like a 

 tiny plant, having a single stem, with many branches, 

 like a miniature tree, or many stems, springing up 

 in a tuft or cluster, like a shrub. Both stems and 

 branches are composed of transparent horny tubes, 

 forming false joints at frequent intervals, and deve- 

 loping at various points little shallow cups. This is 

 the skeleton. Every part of the tubular stem and 

 branches is permeated by a fleshy core or pith, which 

 in every one of the little cups develops itself into a 



