534 SUPPLEMENT 
Sea, in which he has described the animals of a considerable 
number of polyparia, already figured by Imperato. 
It was also at the same period, that the more or less flex- 
ible polyparia, known under the names of Sertulariz, &c. were 
much better distributed, owing to the remarkable labours of 
Ellis upon the corallines—labours which have served as the 
basis of every thing valuable which has been subsequently 
performed respecting the genera of these animals. This 
writer, however, has not been eminently happy in the metho- 
dical distribution of the numerous species which he has ex- 
amined. He has united almost all of them under the com- 
mon denomination of corallines, as Ray had done, who re- 
garded them as plants. 
Notwithstanding these new researches of Ellis, which 
seemed irrefragably to confirm the discovery of Peysonnel, 
some authors, and especially Hill, Targione, and Baster, were 
still inclined to oppose the system—so difficult is the progress 
of truth. But Ellis refuted these objections so completely in 
the Philosophical Transactions, that Baster himself gave way 
and adopted his opinion. 
While the division of the zoophytes was augmenting in 
number and consistency, by the approximation of newly dis- 
covered beings, or of such as had been for a long time re- 
moved from it, the groups which had been anciently admitted 
into it, became more extended and better known by the par- 
ticular labours of zoologists and travellers. Thus Link, in 
1755, published a monograph of the asteriz, which still forms 
the basis of all that has been done on the distribution of the 
species of this very remarkable family. Others followed in 
the same track, and by their attention to particular subdivi- 
sions, illustrated and extended our knowledge of these 
animals. 
About the same time the observations of Trembley on 
a i 
