ORDER IV. ZOOPHITA. 321 



great, and the figures and colours appear so very curious, 

 that some virtuosi have made the arrangement of them 

 the study and the business of their lives. Nor should this 

 singular task be too severely blamed. The mind that can 

 find innocent entertainment in those humble contempla- 

 tions is at least not ill employed. " What can be more 

 gratifying," says Pliny, " than to view nature in all her 

 irregularities, and sporting in all her varieties of shells ? 

 Such a difference of colour do they exhibit, such a dis- 

 tinction of figure ; flat, concave, long, lunated, circular, 

 or the orbit divided ; some prominent on the backs, some 

 wrinkled, toothed, streaked, the point variously intorted, 

 the mouth pointed like a dagger, folded back, or bent 

 inwards ! All these variations, and many more which 

 might be enumerated, at once administer to novelty, to 

 elegance, and to contemplation." 



Whatever subdivisions, and generic as well as specific 

 characters, have been adopted by different conchologists, 

 all appear to admit the three grand distinctions of shells ; 

 the UNIVALVE, the BIVALVE, and the MULTIVALVE. This 

 arrangement, which is at once obvious and simple, must be 

 made the basis of every system. 



It is almost unnecessary to mention, that most of the 

 shells discovered of late years have been also found in a 

 fossil state ; and some moreover in the latter form, whose 

 existing animal has not yet been recognized. 



ORDER IV ZOOPHITA. 



THIS order consists of compound animals, furnished 

 with a kind of flowers, and having a vegetating root and 

 stem. Under this head fifteen genera are arranged, namely, 



TUBIPORA, MADREPOHA, MILLEPORA, CELLEPORA, ISIS, 

 ANTIPATHES, GORGONIA, ALCYONIUM, SPONGIA, FLUSTRA, 



p 5 



