BEAUTY OP APPEARANCE. 115 



period they may remain alive; and if inspected through an 

 ordinary lens their beauty becomes at once apparent. The entire 

 structure then has the appearance of a miniature plant, profusely 

 decked with living flowers ; from which circumstance, indeed, it is 

 that one family of these Polyps derive their name of " Sertula- 

 rian," from sertulo, a little nosegay or chaplet of flowers. The 

 tiny Polyps are seen protruding from their cells, with their ten- 

 tacles fully expanded, now rigidly outstretched, and perfectly 

 motionless, and now suddenly bending and twirling about, as they 

 come in contact with some invisible object floating in the water ; 

 and now, perhaps, taking sudden alarm, they disappear, as if by 

 magic, and shrink to the bottom of their cup-like cells. Very 

 beautiful, too, are the cells themselves ; and in days gone by, 

 when the animal nature of these Polyps was first proclaimed 

 by Ellis, it was these cells which the animals occupied that 

 attracted most attention. " As for your pretty little seed-cups 

 or vases," says Hogarth, in writing to Ellis on the subject, 

 " they are a sweet confirmation of the pleasure Nature seems to 

 have in superadding an elegance of form to most of her works 

 wherever you find them. How poor and bungling are all the 

 imitations of art ! When I have the pleasure of seeing you 

 next, we will sit down, nay, kneel down if you will, and admire 

 these things." 



The number of these Polyps which are sometimes united 

 together in a single polypidom is almost incredible; the 

 occupants of a little feathery tuft attached to the shell of an 

 oyster or a mussel often outnumbering the entire human popu- 

 lation of the largest cities. And every Polyp of the vast 

 multitude has a vital connection with all the rest. It is united 

 at its base to a sort of medullary pith, which runs through the 

 whole extent of the polypidom, and, in reality, connects the 

 entire society into one compound animal, which, althoiigh having 

 an almost infinite number of separate mouths and separate sets of 

 arms to supply them with food, can properly be considered as 

 only a single organism. In one respect, the individual Polyps 

 seem less entitled to the character of independent existences than 

 the blossoms of a plant ; for when one of the number dies and 

 drops out of its little cup the medullary matter at the bottom of 

 the cell speedily buds out afresh, and the vacant cell is soon 

 occupied by a new tenant. 



