244 ZOOPHYTES. 



the body, is another circle of much longer ones, 

 and thirty or forty in number. None of our 

 common zoophytes are better for examination, 

 when picked up from the shore, than this. In 

 scarcely any of the others, unless brought up by the 

 dredge, and carried home immediately to be placed 

 in salt water, can we discern the living wonders. 

 A few hours on the beach will usually deprive 

 them of life. But this coralline, if placed in a 

 tumbler of water, will often, some hours after, ex- 

 hibit its living flowers in full vigour ; and he 

 must indeed be indifferent to grace and beauty, 

 who could look upon them without interest. 

 After being thus kept for some time in the house, 

 its decline is apparent ; and the starry head drops, 

 as would the daisy flower, if some ill wind snapped 

 it from its stem. Let but an interval of a week 

 or more pass over it, however, and again a new 

 head appears, though in a less perfect condition 

 than the original one. The stem is always length- 

 ened by the new formation ; and numerous heads 

 may also be produced by cutting the tubes into 

 several pieces. Thus twenty-two heads were 

 derived, in the course of five hundred and fifty 

 days, from the sections of a single stem. A species 

 of Tubularia (Tubularia dumortierii] , growing not 

 in clusters, but in unbranched solitary tubes of 

 horny colour, and unwrinkled and narrowed at 

 the base, seems somewhat like the last-named 

 species in miniature, but it is not common. 

 There are, besides, two other species of the genus, 

 and the engraving will sufficiently convey an idea 

 of the general appearance of the whole, to lead to 

 their recognition as members of this family. The 

 graceful Tubularia (Tubularia gracilis), is often 



