188 J. D. Dana on Zoophytes. 
and goes on wondering at complexities of its own creation. » Life 
we cannot understand ; but the facts which living beings present 
to the eye may be read with as much clearness in the animalcule, 
as in the animal of higher intelligence ; and even more distinctly 
in the former, as its organization is less complex. We shall find 
as we proceed that the formation of coral is no more surprising 
than that of the oyster shell or the bone of the quadruped, as the 
power of secretion belongs to the most stupid lump of vitali- 
ty, and is the lowest of all the attributes of living beings. 
We shall learn too that the mode of growth which leads to the 
spreading tree as its result, is a consequence of simplicity, and 
far less wonderful, if a comparison can be made, than the process 
which models the diviner form of man, though the zooppyte 1 is 
usually deemed the greater mystery. Corals and coral zoophytes 
may become a very common-place subject to some minds, when 
brought out of the realms of mermaids “ deep in the wave ;” yet 
we venture to believe that the world as created by its Author 
needs no finishing touch from the hand of man to render it 
worthy of our admiration and profound study. 
_ GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ZOOPHYTES. 
9. Zoophyte is a general term used in the same manner as 
plant in the vegetable kingdom. There are species, as we have 
stated, which are single animals, and others like the Madrepore 
tree that are compound; some form coral, and others, not. The 
several individual animals in either case are called polyps. 
A mouth, and a tubular cavity below possessing powers of diges- 
tion and assimilation, are all the essential constituents of a polyp- 
They thereby eat, digest, and grow ; and reproduction follows as a 
result of the animal structure. They are usually attached at base, 
and at the opposite extremity have a circle of arms (tentacles) 
around the mouth. Thus equipped, they fulfill their destiny, with- 
out any of the senses, without a distinct nervous system, with no 
provision of glands, no heart or system of circulation, and no 
distinction of sex. Such is the polyp in its simplest form. Fixed 
in its site upon some rock or sea-weed, it remains with open 
mouth and extended arms, waiting for such chance bits as may 
— in its way. 
- 10. In more Bscns guna une dneied oo ot 
mal of the class weieta: havi te fleshy body near- 
