Aug. 1, ]S65.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



177 



PLANT-ANIMALS, OR ZOOPHYTES. 

 By W. Wallace Pyfe. 



Insect millions peopling- every -wave. 

 And nameless tribes, half-plant, half-animal, 

 Rooted and slumbering through a dream of life. 



The Pelican Mand. 



SCATTERED aloug the sea-sliore, mingled with 

 sea-weed, parasitic on shells, fragments of 

 rock, or marine plants, the visitor will certainly' 

 observe a variety of curious, unobtrusive objects, 

 which, at first sight, will seem to have but little to 

 recommend them to his notice. It was to these that 

 the poet Crabbe alluded when he wrote — 



Involved in sea- wrack, here you find a race 

 Which science, doubting, knows not where to place ; 

 On shell or stone is dropped the embiyo seed. 

 And quickly vegetates a vital breed. 



But science, no longer doubting, regards them as 

 animals, having the appearance of plants, and calls 

 them zoophytes, placing them low in the scale of 

 animal existence. The majority of these consist of 

 a homy sheath, exceedingly variable in size and 

 form, which is termed the polypidom, or home of 

 the polj'pes, because it encloses within it the hydra- 

 like animal or polypus. These polypidoms are 

 usually, when dried, of a horny texture, and of a 

 dirty yellowish-white colour. Each frond-like poly- 

 pidom contains numerous cavities in which the 

 animals are fixed, so that one frond is a perfect 

 colony. Of the animals themselves some idea may 

 be formed by those who have seen the common fresh- 

 water hydra, only that these marine hydrse have a 

 larger number of arms or tentacles ; often twenty 

 or more. 



There is, for instance, the Tuhulana iniimsa, or 

 " Oaten Pipe Coralline " of the Erith of Forth, an 

 animal product resembling a flourishing vegetable, 

 dwelling at the depth of thirty or forty feet under 

 the surface of the sea, with a living head resembling 

 a fine scarlet blossom, and often drooping in a 

 pendent cluster, like grapes ; having, in fact, the 

 ornamental aspect of a bouquet of vivid flowers, fresh 

 from the hand of nature (fig. 1). These creatures, 

 by the way, are generally found on shells, entire or 

 decayed — empty or tenanted. A brilliant group 

 was on one occasion seen on a shell carried along by 

 the crawling inhabitant. The reproductive powers 

 of these zoophytes are deeply interestmg to the 

 naturalist, who can now so readily domesticate them 

 for observation in the aqraarium. But long before 

 this popular drawing-room illustration of living 

 nature was known or thought of, I knew an enthu- 

 siast, the late Sir John Graham Dalyell, Bart., who, 

 by means of glass vessels filled with sea-water, from 

 the size of a watch-glass upwards, carried on for 

 years the most curious practical observations of the 

 mysteries enveloping this kind of animal life. Sir 

 John retained artists to figure and delicately colour 



the appearances of his zoophytes ; the results were 

 given in two elaborate, profusely-illustrated quarto 

 volumes, privately printed, however, and not likely 

 to be in the hands of many; and the fastidious 



m^ 



Fig. 1 . Oaten Pipe Coralline. 



anxiety evinced for scientific accuracy renders these 

 artistic representations almost as acceptable as the 

 living specimens. The Branched Pipe Coralline 

 {Tubulana ramea) especially excited his admiration. 

 This he pronounced " a splendid animal production 

 — one of the most singular, interesting, and beautiful 

 amongst the boundless works of nature." Some- 





Fig. 2. Branched Pipe Coralline, magniftec". 



times, he adds, it resembles a splendid tree, blighted 

 amidst the war of elements, or withered by the deep 

 corrosions of time ; sometimes it resembles a vigor- 



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