OCEAN LIFE. 11 



Reaumer thought this notion very improbable, but after the 

 discovery was confirmed by Trembley and Bernard de Jussieu, 

 (a celebrated botanist,) he adopted the views of Peysonnel, and 

 Linnaeus accordingly transferred the coral and stone plants to 

 the animal kingdom. Polyps are either naked, or are provided 

 with a body more or less hard, which they surround like a bark, 

 or by which they are surrounded. 



SERTULARID^E. 



IN the Sertularian Hydrozoa, the fleshy substance of the ani- 

 mal is inclosed in a ramose, horny sheath, which it traverses like 

 the pith of a tree, following all of the ramifications of the branched 

 stem or polypary. The general stem of the polypary is entirely 

 filled with a fleshy substance, exactly resembling, in its nature, 

 the tissue composing the body of the polyp, whereby all the indi- 

 viduals belonging to the common stock are brought into com- 

 munication with each other. " The Hydroida excel all other 

 Zoophytical productions in delicacy, and the graceful arrange- 

 ment of their forms, some borrowing the forms of the prettiest 

 marine plants, others assuming the semblance of the ostrich 

 plume, while the variety and elegance exhibited in the figures 

 and sculpture of their miniature cups and chalices is only limited 

 by the number of their species." 



In the Sertularidce, " the whole compound animal is inclosed 

 in a tube of transparent substance, somewhat flexible, though 

 firm, resembling horn, an exudation from the gelatinous integu- 

 ment, and this tube, at every bud, takes the form of an open cell 

 or cup, (varying much in shape, according to the species,) into 

 the cavity of which each individual polyp head can withdraw 

 itself on alarm, and from the orifice of which it protrudes and ex- 

 pands when seeking prey. 



These little Polyps provide nourishment for the whole. On 

 examining a piece of one of these polyparies with a good glass, 



