But the remarkable circumstance was, that the flashes of light always proceeded up the branches, from the base towards the extremities.
The examination of these compound animals was always very interesting to me.

What can be more remarkable than to see a plant-like body producing an egg, capable of swimming about and of choosing a proper place to adhere to, which then sprouts into branches, each crowded with innumerable distinct animals, often of complicated organisations.

The branches, moreover, as we have just seen, sometimes possess organs capable of movement and independent of the polypi.

Surprising as this union of separate individuals in a common stock must always appear, every tree displays the same fact, for buds must be considered as individual plants.

It is, however, natural to consider a polypus, furnished with a mouth, intestines, and other organs, as a distinct individual, whereas the individuality of a leaf-bud is not easily realised; so that the union of separate individuals in a common body is more striking in a coralline than in a tree.