828 



A HISTORY OF 



OP THE ZOOPHYTES. 



CHAPTER CXCVI. 



OF ZOOPHYTES IN GENERAL. 



WE now come to the last link in the chain 

 of animated nature, to a class of beings so 

 confined in their powers, and so defective in 

 their formation, that some historians have 

 been at a loss whether to consider them as a 

 superior rank of vegetables, or the humblest 

 order of the animated tribe. In order, there- 

 fore, to give them a denomination agreeable 

 to their existence, they have been called 

 Zoophytes, a name implying vegetable nature 

 endued with animal life ; and, indeed;, in 

 some the marks of the animal are so few, 

 that it is difficult to give their place in na- 

 ture with, precision, or to tell whether it is a 

 plant or an insect that is the object of our 

 consideration. 



Should it be asked what it is that consti- 

 tutes the difference between animal and 

 vegetable life; what it is that lays the line 

 that separates those two great kingdoms 

 from each other; it would be difficult, per- 

 haps we should* find it impossible, to return 

 an answer. The power of motion cannot 

 form this distinction, since some vegetables 

 are possessed of motion, and many animals 

 arc totally without it. The sensitive plant 

 has obviously a greater variety of motions 

 lhan the oyster or the pholas. The animal 

 that fills the acorn-shell is immoveable, and 

 can only close its lid to defend itself from ex- 

 ternal injury, while the flower, which goes 

 by the name of the fly-trap, seems to close 

 upon the flies that tight upon it, and that at- 

 tempt to rifle it of its honey. The animal in 

 this instance seems to have scarce a power 

 of self-defence; the vegetable not only guards 

 its possessions, but seizes upon the robber 



that would venture to invade them. In like 

 manner, the methods of propagation give no 

 superiority to the lower rank of animals. On 

 the contrary, vegetables are frequently pro- 

 duced more conformably to the higher ranks 

 of the creation, and though some plants are 

 produced by cuttings from others, yet the 

 general manner of propagation is from seeds, 

 laid HI the womb of the earth, where they are 

 hatched into the similitude of the parent plant 

 or flower. But a most numerous tribe of ani~ 

 mals have lately been discovered, which are 

 propagated by cuttings, and this in so extra- 

 ordinary a manner, that, though the original 

 insect be divided into a thousand parts, each, 

 however small, shall be formed into an ani- 

 mal, entirely resembling that which was at 

 first divided : in this respect, therefore, cer- 

 tain races of animals seem to fall beneath 

 vegetables, by their more imperfect propaga- 

 tion. 



What, therefore, is the distinction between 

 them ? or are the orders so intimately blend- 

 ed as that it is impossible to mark (he boun- 

 daries of each ? To me it would seem, that 

 all animals are possessed of one power, of 

 which vegetables are totally deficient: I 

 mean, either the actual ability, or an awk- 

 ward attempt at self-preservation. However 

 vegetables may seem possessed o.f this im- 

 portant quality, yet it is with them but a 

 mechanical impulse, resembling the raising 

 one end of the lever when you depress the 

 other: the sensitive plant contracts and 

 hangs its leaves indeed, when touched, but 

 this motion no way contributes to its safety ;. 

 the fly-trap flower acts entirely in the same 



