ZOOPHYTES 



Now let vis ess the result. Yes, it is as I expected. 

 The united stimulus of the darkness and the sea-water has 

 acted on the Cow's-pap, just as would the rising and cov- 

 ering tide in its native cavern, after it had been left ex- 

 posed for some hours by the recess of the sea. It is fully 

 expanded, and is now as lovely as just now it was un- 

 pleasing. 



In the first place it is swollen to twice its former di- 

 mensions, and has acquired at the same time a semi-pel- 

 lucidity, and a more delicate hue. But in place of the 

 pits on the surface (there were not more than half a dozen 

 in this little specimen, which makes it more suitable for 

 examination), it is covered with tall polypes, standing out 

 on all sides, of crystalline clearness and starry forms, each 

 eminently beautiful in itself, and surrounding the whole 

 mass with a sort of atmosphere of almost invisible and im- 

 palpable lustre peculiarly charming. 



Coy as these deep-water strangers are of displaying 

 their beauties in our glaring aquariums, they will bear, 

 when once they are expanded, a good deal of shaking with 

 equanimity. Hence I may be able to transfer the trough 

 with its contents from the jar to the stage of the micro- 

 scope, and thus enable you to gaze on its details for a lit- 

 tle while, before the dull sensorium of the creature is suffi- 

 ciently warned of its ungenial position to cause it to shut 

 itself up and resume its ugliness. 



As the protruded polypes are exactly alike, it will be 

 enough to confine our attention to one. It is an elevated 

 tubular column of translucent substance, terminating in an 

 expanded flower of eight slender pointed petals, which 

 spring outward with a graceful swell, so as to give the 

 form of a shallow bell to the general outline. The base 



