In the mid-1820s, Charles Darwin was in medical school at the University of Edinburgh. There he met the evolutionist Robert Grant. Grant was interested in zoophytes, organisms that were considered plantlike animals. He and others hoped these organisms might help bridge the gap between the two kingdoms. Darwin accompanied Grant on collecting trips to the Firth of Forth, and it was through this work that he had his first brush with scientific scholarship. Darwin delivered a short report to the Plinian Society, a natural history club, on his observations of the “ova” of Flustra, a seaweed-like aquatic invertebrate.

A few years later, while aboard the Beagle, Darwin’s interest in zoophytes continued. In his account of the voyage, he offered the following reflective description of one of these species, Virgularia patagonica: