432 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 



sonable to conclude, because they have been unsuccessful, th 

 more accurate observers may not be more fortunate at another 

 time." Having thus disposed of an argument which he could 

 not distinctly answer, Ellis goes on to notice the fact of the 

 coralline which had been found on Bergummer heath in Fries- 

 land, and which the vagueness of the manner in which the 

 discovery was announced permitted or warranted him to 

 ascribe to accident ; and he then concludes his admirable 

 essay with a faithful and minute account of the fructification 

 of the Confervse, and proves to a demonstration, that, when 

 Baster and Pallas attributed a similar fructification to coral- 

 lines, they had very erroneous ideas of the subject.* 



The discussion rested here, and zoophytes, including the 

 sponges and corallines, have been ever since enumerated among 

 the subjects of the animal kingdom, although some, among 

 whom Spallanzani may be particularized, continued in the 

 belief that the corallines and the sponges were vegetables. 

 But naturalists continue to be divided in opinion relative to 

 the nature of acknowledged zoophytes, for many, of whom 

 Bory de St. Vincent may be considered the chief, -f- still speak 

 of them as intermediate beings partaking of a twofold nature; 

 while others, under the leading of Bruguiere^: and Lamarck, 

 defend their claims to pure animality. No new doctrine has 

 been promulgated ; neither indeed have the old been defend- 

 ed or attacked by any other facts or arguments than those 

 already referred to, and with these before me I cannot hesi- 

 tate to give my assent to the opinion of Ellis. No one denies 

 that the polypes, considered abstractedly from their polypidoms, 



* Phil. Trans, vol. Ivii. p. 404, &c. Pallas appears to have been convinced by 

 this essay that the corallines were animals ; and he acknowledged that in reference to 

 the land species he had been imposed upon. Lin. Corresp. i. 227 and 568. Yet it 

 should be remembered, that Captains Vancouver and Flinders observed on the shores 

 of New Holland, at considerable heights above the level of the sea, arborescent calca- 

 reous productions, which they considered to be corals. Peron says they are either 

 corals or vegetables incrusted with calcareous matter ; and Dr. Clarke Abel has proved 

 that they are the latter. Edin. Phil. Journ. ii. 198. 



t Encyclop. Method, ii. 647. Cuvier, in an early work, gave countenance to this 

 opinion ; but in his " Regne Animal," iii. 220, Paris, 1830, it is repudiated. 



J His definition is carefully worded, that no suspicion of his opinion might be en- 

 tertained : " ZOOPHYTA composita animalia irregulariter coacervata aut ramosa, fere 

 semper basi radicata et sicplantis analoga.' 1 '' Tab. Syst. des Vers, p. vii. 



