ZOOPHYTES 3Z1 



fectly transparent and colorless; the whiteness of the whole 

 being dependent on a soft medullary core of living jelly, 

 which permeates the whole structure, on which the horny 

 sheath is as it were molded. 



This medulla is pierced with a canal, through which a 

 fluid circulates, carrying along numerous minute granules 

 with a quivering, jerking motion; 

 this is doubtless the nutrient fluid 

 conveying the products of digestion 

 to every part of the common struc- 

 ture. 



Where the branches issue from 

 the angles of the stem, the medulla, 

 and consequently the horny sheath, 

 is dilated into a knob; immediately 

 above this there is a joint- like con- 

 striction in the tube, and the branch 

 itself is insected by four or five such 

 constrictions, so as to form as many 

 rings. Its extremity then expands 

 into an elegant cup, or vase, of ex- 

 treme tenuity and transparency, LAOMKDKA. 

 shaped like a wine-glass, with the rim undivided, but so 

 thin and subtle as to be seen with the greatest difficulty. 



These cups, or cells, are each the proper habitation of 

 a polype, which is nothing else but the termination (in this 

 direction) of the living, growing, vascular pith. The lat- 

 ter becomes exceedingly attenuated to pass through a very 

 narrow orifice in the centre of a horny diaphragm, or sort 

 of false bottom, which passes across the bottom of each 

 cell. It then dilates into a soft contractile animal, whose 

 body but look for yourself," for here, full in the field of 



