CHAPTER VII. 
ZOANTHARIA, OR ANIMAL FLOWERS. 
" 1 saw the living pile ascend 
The mausoleum of its architects, 
Still dying upwards as their labour closed : 
Slime the material, but the slime was turned 
To adamant by their petrifle touch." 
Montgomery's Pelican Island. 
The zoophytes which constitute the class Zoantharia are quite great 
Personages. Some of them are eighteen or twenty inches long ; at 
the same time, others scarcely exceed the eighth part of an inch in 
length. They live in all seas, and seem to have existed through many 
a ges of the earth’s history ; they appear at an early geological period, 
a nd they have performed an important part in its formation ; we shall 
ac “e that, with great numbers of them, parts cut off from their bodies 
continue to live and become new individuals. 
The name of Zoantharia was first given to the class by Gray ; but 
here we give it a somewhat wider signification, embracing under it the 
Madrepores and starred stones of Lasueur, who is reminded of a field 
enamelled with small flowers when he sees the little polypes of 
P or ites Axtroides in full blow. “But it is only,” says Johnston, 
‘‘ when they lie with their upper disk expanded, and their tentacula 
displayed, that they solicit comparison with the boasts of Flora ; for, 
when contracted, the polypes of the madrepores conceal tbcmselves in 
their calcareous cups, and the actiniae hide their beauty, assuming the 
shape of an obtuse cone or hemisphere of a fleshy consistence, or 
elongating themselves into a sort of flabby cylinder that indicates a 
state of relaxation and indolent repose.” 
These zoophytes are flesh-eaters, and consume quantities truly 
