114 ZOOPHYTES. 



of the Aquarium itself to the habits and history of its various 

 inmates the little creatures which all of a sudden became so 

 immensely popular, and which, had they but the gift of speech, 

 might very well say, with a certain bygone celebrity of a higher 

 grade, that they awoke one morning and found themselves 

 famous. 



One or two words here, however, by way of explanation. It 

 is with the marine Aquarium, exclusively, that we propose to 

 deal : furthermore, we shall refer not merely to those animals, 

 which, with proper care and attention may be permanently 

 domesticated, but occasionally also to those more delicate races, 

 which, excepting under the most favourable circumstances, are to 

 be regarded rather as casual and temporary occupants, than as 

 regular and settled inmates of the establishment. 



Let us begin with one of these " casual and temporary " races, 

 the most characteristic of the so-called " zoophytes." The little 

 Hydra of our ponds and ditches is the fresh-water representative 

 of an extremely interesting class of these animals, known as the 

 Hydroid-Polyps, which are in reality neither more nor less than 

 associated Hydras enclosed in little homy cups, and supported on 

 a branched tree-like structure of the same horny consistence, 

 termed the polypidom or Polyps' house. It is to these creatures 

 that Crabbe alludes in the well-known lines : 



" Involved in sea-wrack, here you find a race 

 Which science, doubting, knows not whereto place; 

 On shell or stone is dropt the embryo-seed, 

 And quickly vegetates a vital breed." 



"Science" has long ago settled "where to place" these 

 animals, and has assigned to them a position but a step or two 

 above the very bottom of the animal series. It was long 

 doubted, indeed, whether they could properly be ranked with 

 animals at all ; and the arborescent forms which the polypidom 

 assumes, still leads to their being popularly classed with sea- 

 weeds. 



Individually, these little creatures are far too insignificant in 

 size to make any figure in the Aquarium, where indeed they can 

 seldom be kept alive for more than a few days, and for even that 

 time only when the water is extremely pure. But they arc 

 abundantly worth all the trouble they cost, for however short a 



