SEA-MATS AND SHELLY CORALLINES. 69 



would presently die ; and though in its own substance it 

 would not yield any nutriment to the capturer, yet by 

 becoming the centre of a crowd of busy infusoria, multi- 

 tudes of which would constantly be drawn into the ten- 

 tacular vortex, and swallowed, it would be ancillary to its 

 support; and the organ in question would thus play no 

 unimportant part in the economy of the animal. 



given to a certain group of animals which axe, as it were, made up of 

 many individuals massed together. By some naturalists they are called 

 Bryozoa, a term derived from Ppvov (bruon), sea-moss, and Cut"- 



