252 ZOOPHYTES. 



a magnifying glass, as resembling a swollen pod 

 girded round with from five to nine cristated ribs 

 or bands. A quotation given also by that valu- 

 able writer from another, will here show how 

 deeply interesting are these little common pro- 

 ductions of our seas, to those who have carefully 

 examined them. " Each plume," says Mr. Lister, 

 in reference to a specimen of the podded coralline, 

 " might comprise from 400 to 500 polypi, and a 

 specimen of no unusual size, before me, has twelve 

 plumes, with certainly not fewer cells on each 

 than the larger number mentioned: thus giving 

 6,000 polypes as the tenantry of a single polypidom. 

 Now many such specimens, all united, too, by a 

 common fibre, and all the offshoots of one common 

 parent, are often located on one sea-weed, the site 

 then of a population, which nor London nor Pekin 

 can rival. But Plumularia cristata is a small spe- 

 cies, and there are single specimens of Plumularia 

 falcata, or Sertularia argentea, of which the family 

 may consist of 80,000, or 100,000 individuals ! " 

 Surely if we could gain, here below, any idea of 

 the infinite Creator, it would be when we con- 

 sider wonders like these, and were it not that they 

 are facts susceptible of actual demonstration, such 

 statements would demand as great a degree of 

 faith as even the sublime declarations of the mys- 

 teries of Revelation. 



A very pretty coralline is common on the sea- 

 weeds which grow near low- water mark. It is 

 often parasitic on the fronds of the tangle, or 

 podded halidrys, though not confined to them. 

 Sometimes its tiny knotted roots creep about the 

 broad tangle leaves, like a regular piece of net- 

 work, and, as Mr. W. Thompson has remarked, 



