506 A DESCRIPTION OF 
If in the sea the mangled parts you cast, 
The conscious pieces to their fellows haste ; 
Again they aptly join, their whole compose, 
Move as before, nor life nor vigour lose. 
In Marseilles, and some other towns on the continent, the 
Sea-urchin is exposed for sale in the markets, as oysters 
are with us, and is eaten boiled as an egg. The Romans 
adopted it as food, and dressed it with vinegar, mead, 
parsley, and mint. 
ZOOPHYTES. 
ZOOPHYTES hold a middle station between animals and 
vegetables. Most of them, deprived altogether of the 
power of locomotion, are fixed by stems that take root in 
crevices of rocks among sand, or in such other situations 
as Nature has destined for their abode: these, by degrees, 
send off branches, till at length some of them attain the 
size and extent of large shrubs. The Zoophytes were 
placed by Linnaeus in two divisions. The stony branches 
of the first division, which have the general appellation 
of coral, are hollow and full of cells, which are the habi- 
tations of animals. The next division consists of such 
zoophytes as have softer stems, and are, in general, not 
merely inhabitants of a stem or branches, but are them- 
selves in the form of a plant. Those of this division which 
are best known are the corallines, the sponges, and the 
polypes. Modern naturalists divide the Zoophytes into 
numerous families. 
