ZOOPHYTES 369 



on in these unruffled wells, beneatli the brown shadow of 

 the umbrageous Oarweed, or over the waving slopes of the 

 bright green Ulva, or among the feathery branches of 

 the crimson Ceramium f 



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

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

 bringing home the opima spolia, 1 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 metropolis 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 anastomosing everywhere, 

 like the railways on Bradshaw's map. 



This double forest is wholly composed of a single spe- 

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

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

 multitudinous 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 a while 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 



1 Rich spoils. 



