t 4 8 MADREPORA. 



compounded of many of fuch animals, each upon its cell, 

 do vegetate as plants, becaufe they grow up together in 

 ramified forms. 



Peyfonel and Linnaeus are both of opinion, that the 

 animals of the Lithophyta, or Corals, conftrucl their own 

 cells by depofiting under them a coralline matter. See 

 Syft. Nat. pag. 1270. 



[1]. Madrepore Simplices. 



Corallium (implex. 

 Stella unica. 



Jab. 28. i. Madrepora Patella. 



Madrepora fim-phx acaulis, lamellis latere muricatis fub- 

 trkhotomis : tertiis vidivifis majoribus. 



Tab. 28. Fig. i — 4. 



La?nellce omnes margine denticulate, latere valde mu- 

 ricatae, dure trichotomy : lamellula intermedia indivifa 

 crafliufcula : tertia reliquis multo major, a centro ad 

 marginem continua, indivifa. Juniores plana?, adulta? 

 convexse. 



This little Coral is an inch and a half diameter, and a 

 quarter of an inch thick : when 1 firft faw it, I took it 

 to be the Madrepora Fungites in its younger ftate ; but 

 upon examining it ftriclly, and the manner of its grow- 

 ing, fuch as the regular fubdivilions of its lamella? at par- 

 ticular diftances in a trichotomous order, together with 

 their fides being remarkably granulated ; befides, the 

 plates, or lamella?, of the younger kinds of Madrepora 

 Fungites from the Eall: Indies are much more elevated, 

 Iefs numerous, fmooth on their fides, and their edges 



dentated 



