.If- 



» PLANTS ^THEIR NATUEE AND PHENOMENA. 39 



zoophytes, although now determined to be animals, so 

 closely resemble plants that, until lately, they have been 

 classed by science with the vegetable kingdom. The 

 sponge affords us an illustration of this fact, and so does 

 the sea-anemone. It is only the enlightened who are pre- 

 pared to comprehend, even at the present time, that a 

 sponge is an animal, and that its multiplied orifices are 

 simply natural aqueducts, through which flow the tidal 

 streams whence it obtains its food — aqueducts on which, 

 after sufficiently nourishing its young, it launches them 

 forth into the world to seek their fortune by their inde- 

 pendent exertions. The habits of the anemone, and its 

 curious characteristics, we have alluded to in our opening 

 chapter. Nothing could approach more closely, as far as 

 appearances go, the peculiarities of a flower, than this 

 zoophyte. It is difiicult to realize, while watching it, 

 that it is not a beautiful specimen of some sea-rose, in- 

 stead of a creature whose every lovely spot, almost, con- 

 ceals a dart waiting in alluring disguise the approach of 

 a victim. 



Motion, as a consequence of vital power, is not to be 

 denied to plants. The motion in some of them may 

 almost be attributed to sensation, although having no 

 nervous system that we can perceive, this apparent sen- 

 sation may be reduced to simple irritabihty. The Quiver- 

 worts,, or Oscillatorice, for instance, have movements that 

 have given rise to grave and learned treatises in the sci- 

 entific world. They have been thought to form, in fresh- 



