A N 



S AY 



TOWARDS A 



NATURAL HISTORY 



O F 



ENGLISH CORALLINES, i^c. 



CHAP. L 



N order to be the better underftood, in treating of 

 the feveral marine Productions, which are the Sub- 

 jed of the following Effay, I find myfelf under a 

 kind of Nccefiity to fpeak in the common Lan- 

 guage of thofe, who, confidering them merely as Plants or 

 marine Vegetables, have, as Botaniil:s, reduced them to certain 

 Claffes; and, with the celebrated i?^, fhall divide them into 

 Corals^ CGrallmes^ Keraiophytat Kfchara^ Sponges^ and Al~ 

 cyonia. But in difpofing of the feveral Subjeds, I fhall ra- 

 ther have Regard to the fimilar Texture of the Subftances, 

 and the Figure of the Animals that inhabit them, than to tlie 

 mere external Form and Appearance, which were the fole 

 Objeds of the botanical Writers. 



B Accordinsi 



