ZOOPHYTES. 261 



every drop of ocean, and gathered in for the sup- 

 port of the whole body by the vigorous polypes, 

 whose arms, expanded like flowers, convey the 

 prey into their stomachs. Yet the axis of this 

 sea-fan is not, as we might at first suppose, of a 

 stony nature; it is horny, and covered with a 

 fleshy substance or crust, the living link which 

 unites the numerous polypes into one harmonious 

 whole. As this crust dries, it becomes friable and 

 porous ; and it is in this state that we see it when 

 we look at the sea-fan in the museum, or place it 

 in our houses for ornament. Nor is the flat and 

 fan-like shape of the zoophyte a mere accidental 

 figure. The prevalence of this form in submarine 

 vegetation long since attracted the attention of our 

 great naturalist Kay, who, in his work on the 

 " Wisdom of God in Creation,' 7 thus remarks on 

 it : " That the motion of the water descends to 

 a good depth, I prove from those plants that grow 

 deepest in the sea, because they all generally 

 grow flat, in the manner of a fan, and not with 

 branches on all sides, like trees, which is so con- 

 trived by the providence of nature, for that the 

 edges of them do, in that posture, with most ease 

 cut the water flowing to and fro ; and should the 

 flat side be objected to the stream, it would soon 

 be turned edgewise, by the force of it, because in 

 that site it doth least resist the motion of the 

 water : whereas did the branches of these plants 

 grow round, they would be thrown backward and 

 forward every tide. Nay, not only the herbaceous 

 and woody submarine plants, but also the litho- 

 phyta themselves, affect this manner of growing, 

 as I have observed in various kinds of coral and 

 pori." 



