Z Zoophytes

Zoophytes

The term zoophyte has passed out of scientific usage but was once a catch-all label applied to sea creatures of unrelated taxa, such as corals, sea anemones, sea squirts and sponges.

These creatures had been described by the 6th-century scholar Isidore of Seville as animals that behaved like plants, the term ‘zoophyte’ (φυτόζωω) signifying ‘animal-plants’ in Greek. Zoophytes had been accepted as a separate taxonomic class by the great Carl Linnaeus, but the term was dismissed in the early 19th century by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, an expert on invertebrates, who highlighted dissimilarities between many supposed members of the class. Despite this, the word zoophyte continued to be used for much of the 19th century as a convenient term to describe corals and other colourful sea creatures.

The images presented here are from Zoophytes, a book by James Dwight Dana published in Philadelphia in 1849, and considered to be a pioneering work of American scientific description. It was issued as Volume 7 of a proposed 28 volumes of findings published by the United States Exploring Expedition, although only 19 were completed. The expeditionary work was carried out between 1838 and 1842 and was the first major scientific research project to be undertaken by the still young United States. It was led by the naval officer Charles Wilkes at the head of a flotilla of six ships equipped to conduct scientific surveys of the Pacific Ocean. A team of on-board scientists stood ready to make observations of geology, vulcanology, oceanography, zoology and even ethnography of the island communities they encountered. One of the expeditionary scientists was Dana (1813–95), later to be Professor of Natural History and Geology at Yale. Although his chief work lay with geology, his documentation of sea animals in his zoophyte volume was a model of analytical description. His scientific precision was matched by the expedition’s official artist, Joseph Drayton (1795–1856), who was responsible for the delicately observed studies of sea creatures in the volume’s 61 hand-coloured, full-page engravings.

Acknowledgements

Texts: Dr Simon McKeown, Keeper of Rare Books, and Head of History of Art Text for ‘Hebrew’: Isobel Benster (U6 DA) Text for ‘Newton’: Willow Smiley (U6 MO)

Photography: Ian Leonard Additional photography: Simon McKeown

Design: MAXX, Newbury

Project Manager: Jackie Jordan

With thanks to: The Master, Louise Moelwyn-Hughes; the Head Librarian, James Burton; the Archivist, Gráinne Lenehan; and former Librarian, Trisha Rae.

Marlborough College is pleased to acknowledge the kind permission of the National Portrait Gallery to reproduce images of Sarah Churchill, Charles Darwin, the Rev. J. D. Glennie, Sir Isaac Newton, William Tyndale, Siegfried Sassoon, and W. B. Yeats.

This publication remembers with gratitude those many individuals who have entrusted their remarkable books to the care of Marlborough, and through such gifts supported and enriched the College’s academic ambition and provision.

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