ZOOPHYTA BRITANNICA. 
ORDER I. 
Z. HYDROIDA. 
Character. 
Polypes compound , rarely single and naked , the mouth encir- 
ded with roughish filiform tentacula ; stomach without proper pa - 
rietes ; intestine 0 ; anus 0 ; reproductive gemmules pullulating 
from the body and naked , or contained in external vesicles . — — 
Polypidoms horny, fistular, more or less phytoidal, fixed, external . 
Observations. 
6C As for your pretty little seed-cups or vases, they are a 
sweet confirmation of the pleasure Nature seems to take in su- 
peradding an elegance of form to most of her works, wherever 
you find them. How poor and bungling are all the imitations 
of art ! When I have the pleasure of seeing you next, we will 
sit down, nay kneel down if you will, and admire these things.”* 
Thus did Hogarth — our great moral painter — write to Ellis in 
evident reference to the zoophytes of the present order ; and he 
must indeed be more than ordinarily dull and insensate who can 
examine them without catching some of the enthusiasm of the 
artist. They excel all other zoophytical productions in delica- 
cy and the graceful arrangement of their forms, some borrowing 
the character of the prettiest marine plants, others assuming the 
semblance of the ostrich-plume, while the variety and elegance 
exhibited in the figures and sculpture of their miniature cups 
and chalices is only limited by the number of their species. 
The Hydroida vary from a few lines to upwards of a foot in 
Lin. Corresp. Vol. ii. p. 44. 
