256 ZOOPHYTES. 



few persons as yet to have looked upon. Entangled 

 among the corallines were also minute luminous 

 annelides, which added their tiny fires to the ge- 

 neral exhibition." The light given out by the 

 polypes seems caused by irritation. 



There is a beautiful little coralline, called by 

 Ellis the Small-climbing coralline, with bell-shaped 

 cups (Campanularia volubilis), which creeps, like 

 so many threads, over sea- weeds, and often also 

 over other corallines, and which is well worth 

 observation with the microscope. Its polype cells 

 are graceful little bells, and so beautiful is its 

 construction, that each little cup has at its base, 

 a delicate joint or hinge, which is thought to have 

 been designed, by the great Creator, for the pur- 

 pose of enabling this delicate and fragile creature 

 to bend before the force of a wave, which else 

 would dash it into atoms : but we must pass by 

 this lovely little object to some more easily de- 

 scribed, and which cannot fail to attract the notice 

 of every passer-by. 



The horny, hollow-jointed shoots of the Lob- 

 sterVhorn coralline, or Sea-beard (Antennularia 

 antennina), lie about in summer-time, upon every 

 shore. They have been rent away from their 

 place of growth on the stones which lie among 

 the sea-sands, or perchance from the sands them- 

 selves, on which they often grow in erect clusters. 

 The polypidoms of this species are straight shoots, 

 growing together in a cluster of about a dozen in 

 number, sometimes as much as seven or eight 

 inches in height, of a clear yellow horn colour ; 

 and the fisherman knows them well, for they 

 crowd upon the oyster-shells in profusion. The 

 shoots are surrounded with hair -like branch- 



