826 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



I have just been exploring some of these rock-wells, 

 and have rifled them of not a few of their living treasures, 

 bringing home the spoils, that you may share with me in 

 the enjoyment of examining them. 



The Zoophytes* are here in their glory. Such places 

 as those I speak of are the very capitals of the zoophytic 

 nation. Look at this great leaf of the fingered Tangle : 

 see how its broad olive-brown expanse is covered with tiny 

 forests of white branching threads, which spread and 

 spread till they run off into the fingers of the much split 

 leaf ; and not only on one side, for the under surface is as 

 densely clad with the shaggy burden as the upper; the 

 smooth leathery tissue being covered with a network of 

 creeping roots, branching and radiating everywhere, like 

 the railways on BradshaVs map. 



This double forest is wholly composed of a single species, 

 called Laomedea geniculata; nay, I believe it is but one 

 single individual. That is to say, the whole of these mul- 

 titudinous ramified threads and stems, with their innu- 

 merable polypes,! have all extended by gradual though 

 rapid growth from a single germ, and all are connected 

 even now, so that a common life pervades the whole. 

 But we will look awhile at it in detail till we have mastered 

 its external features, and then I will tell you something of 

 its history and economy. 



With the unassisted eye we* can discern plainly enough 

 the outline and plan of this compound organism. Along 

 the smooth and slippery surface of the olive weed runs a 



* From the Greek fov (zoon), an animal, and $VTOV (phuton), a plant. 

 A term applied to a large class of animals bearing polypes, and whose 

 entire skeleton, called apolypary or polypidom, more or less resembles a 

 plant or tree in its appearance and growth. 



The term Ccelenterata is now substituted for this in systematic natural 

 history. See Prof. Greene's excellent " Manual of the Anim. Kingd." 

 ii. Lond. 1861. 



t From the Greek n-oXv? (polus), many, and rovs (pous), foot. A low 

 order of animals with numerous tentacles or feelers round the aperture 

 serving for a mouth, and often bearing a strong resemblance to flowers. 



