THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 33 



connected by a common life, and forming a seem- 

 ing plant invariable in each species,) would have 

 dreamed of the " bizarreries " which these very 

 zociphytes present in their classification ? You 

 go down to any shore after a gale of wind, and 

 pick up a few delicate little sea-ferns. You have 

 two in your hand, which probably look to you, 

 even under a good pockct-magnifior, identical 

 or nearly so.* But you are told, to your surprise, 

 that however ahkc the dead horny polypidoms 

 which you hold may be, the two species of animal 

 which have formed them are at least as far apart 

 in the scale of creation as a quadruped is from a 

 fish. You see in some Musselburgh dredger's 

 boat the phosphorescent sea-pen, (unknown in 

 England,) a living feather, of the look and con- 

 sistency of a cock's comb ; or the still stranger 

 sea-rush, ( Virfjalaria mirabilis,) a spine two feet 

 long, witli hundreds of rosy flowerets arranged in 

 half-rings round it from end to end ; and you 

 arc told that these are the congeners of llie great 

 stony Vcnus's fan which bangs in seamen's cot- 

 tages, brought liomc from tlie "West Indies. And 



* Herhdiirtd cy/i n ulnOt iiini ijiiiicliari.i Imintliita ; or nnv 

 of the fimall Scrtulnriw, cornpnicl witli Crimir uml CiHularicc 

 arc very good cxomplcs. 

 3 



