ORGANIC AND INORGANIC MATTER COMPARED. 79 



horny tubes, their cells, their plant-like forms, 

 and mode of attachment, we must confess that 

 the Phytozoa are among the most mysterious of 

 living things whiqfc the fiat of creative Wisdom 

 has called into existence." To these strange 

 beings the term Phytozoa (from cfivrov, phyton, 

 a plant, and '(wov, zoon, an animal) is very 

 applicable. As, from a single seed, a tree or 

 shrub, with all its branches, leaves, and flowers, 

 is developed, so from a single ovum does a 

 branching zoophyte, with its numerous cells 

 and polypes, become developed. Among these 

 cells are some which may be termed egg-cap- 

 sules, in which the ova are developed, and after 

 a certain time escape in the form of ciliated 

 bodies, which being dispersed ultimately become 

 fixed, and grow up into branched zoophites, or 

 corallines. " In some species the germ cells, or 

 egg capsules, are metamorphosed into ova at 

 particular parts, and the concomitant growth of 

 the soft tissue and outer crust furnish these ova 

 with a capsule ; which modification in the 

 growth of the coralline, professor E. Forbes 

 compares with that metamorphosis in flowering 

 plants in which the floral bud is constituted 

 through the contraction of the axis, and the 

 whirling of the individuals borne on that axis, 

 and by their transformation into the several 

 parts of the flower." Trees and plants like 

 corallines exhibit an aggregation of distinct 

 individuals vitally united into one whole. Pro- 

 fessor E. Forbes says, " We are not in the 

 habit of regarding the leaf as the individual 



