198 CLASS III.— ORDER II. 



Some authors have imagined that the cells were dis- 

 cernible on the exterior of this envelope ; but an at- 

 tentive examination of the Polypidom has enabled me 

 to discover in the warty Gorgonias, characterised as 

 having projecting cells, that these cells were no other 

 than the bodies of the polypi themselves, whose sum- 

 mits were crowned with their retractile tentacula. This 

 polypus is not enclosed within a cell ; it is more or 

 less projecting, and its exterior is a mere prolonga- 

 tion of the fleshy mass that forms the rind ; so that 

 what has been hitherto looked upon as the cell and 

 shelter of the polypus, is nothing more than a ca- 

 vity destined to enclose the organs most essential to 

 the existence of the animalcule, whose more exposed 

 parts are found destroyed by contact with other bo- 

 dies. These observations are easily made on Gor- 

 gonias that have been preserved with care ; in these 

 the imagined cells are all obliterated, and this oblitera- 

 tion is produced by the part of the animal to which the 

 tentacula are attached ; this part is sometimes clearly 

 distinguished from the other part of the rind by a 

 circular contraction, which gives it a rather globular 

 appearance. In the Gorgonias of the third section 

 (distinguished as having projecting polypi) the lower 

 part of the body is frequently marked with transverse 

 wrinkles, which are occasioned either by desiccation or 

 the situation of the polypi ; these wrinkles constitute 

 no particular character. In the species of the first 

 section, where the animal appears not to have had 

 the power to raise itself beyond the rind, the open- 

 ing of this imagined cell is frequently garnished with 

 cils lengthened more or less, which I take to be the 



