ZOOPHYTES. 



259 



loses this brighter tint, and as it increases in size, 

 it assumes a dingy brownish colour, like that of 

 wet sand. It is very brittle, and irregularly 



branched, and from four to ten inches in height, 

 growing upright from numerous fibres matted 

 together like a piece of sponge. 



A large number of these pretty plant-like 

 zoophytes must be left unnoticed here ; nor shall 

 we linger long over the division of the large class 

 Anthozoa, called the Asteroida. Zoophytes of 

 this order consist of a calcareous or horny axis, 

 or internal skeleton, surrounded by the fleshy 

 parts of the compound body. Our British species 

 are all natives of the deeper parts of the sea, and 

 cannot, therefore, be considered as common ob- 

 s 2 



