582 SUPPLEMENT 
kingdom; but our limits forbid us entering into this question, 
or adding to the statement of the text, however brief, any 
thing beyond the observations of de Blainville, who says, that 
notwithstanding all the pains he bestowed in observing coral- 
lines in the shade, or in the sun, or in the small holes of rocks 
filled with water some time after the sea had retired, with a 
very strong microscope, he was never able to discern the least 
trace of animals, or even of filaments which might issue from 
them. If, after having viewed the exterior of a coralline, we 
come to study the internal structure, we shall not find, as 
some authors say, that it is a fibrous corneous axis, sur- 
rounded by a calcareous crust, but on the contrary, that it is 
a sort of cellular tissue, in the meshes of which the calcare- 
ous matter is deposited ; and in fact, when we put a coralline 
into a weak acid, it is softened absolutely like a bone, with- 
out being diminished in volume, without assuming another 
form, or even changing colour. All this causes M. de 
Blainville to doubt that the true corallines can be formed by 
distinct polypi. But he puts the query—is the coralline 
really a vegetable? On this point he is by no means assured, 
although all the Italians, who have been the principal ob- 
servers of these sorts of bodies, appear to be perfectly con- 
vinced that it is. 
Every one knows that under the name of CoRAL (Corallium) 
is commonly understood a sort of arbusculum, more or less 
branched, stony, calcareous, sometimes of a fine red colour, 
sometimes more or less roseate, or even altogether white. It 
has been employed from time immemorial in the manufac- 
ture of toys, and other objects of ornament, and it gives rise 
to a fishery and trade of great extent in different parts of the 
Mediterranean. 
The polypi which inhabit the cellules of the surface of the 
coral, are very soft, altogether white, and not very transparent. 
Their body, or belly, is cylindrical, and-entirely concealed in 
