THE LYTHOPHYTES AND SPONGES. 



837 



many naturalists for such. Mr. Hughes, the 

 author of the natural history of Barbadoes, 

 has described a species of this animal, but 

 has mistaken its nature, and called it a sensi- 

 tive flowering plant ; he observed it to take 

 refuge in the holes of rocks, and, when un- 

 disturbed, to spread forth a number of rami- 

 fications, each terminated by a flowery petal, 



which shrunk at the approach of (he hand, 

 and withdrew into the hole from whence be- 

 fore it had been seen to issue. This plant, 

 however, was no other than an animal of the 

 polypus kind, which is not only to be found 

 in Barbadoes, but also on many parls of the 

 coast of Cornwall, and along the shores of 

 the continent. 



CHAPTER GC. 



OF THE LYTHOPHYTES ANV SPONGES. 



IT is very prooable that the animals we 

 see and are acquainted with, bear no man- 

 ner of proportion to those that are concealed 

 from us. Although every leaf and vegetable 

 swarms with animals upon land, yet at sea 

 they are still more abundant ; for the great- 

 est part of what would seem vegetables 

 growing there, are in fact nothing but the 

 artificial formation of insects, palaces which 

 they have built for their own habitation. 



If we examine the bottom of the sea along 

 some shores, and particularly at the mouths 

 of several rivers, we shall find it has the ap- 

 pearance of a forest of trees under water, 

 millions of plants growing in various direc- 

 tions, with their branches entangled in each 

 other, and sometimes standing so thick as to 

 obstruct navigation. The shores of the Per- 

 sian Gulf, the whole extent of the Red-sea, 

 and the western coasts of America, are so 

 choaked up in many places with these cora- 

 line substances, that though ships force a 

 passage through them, boats and swimmers 

 find it impossible to make their way. These 

 aquatic groves are formed of different sub- 

 stances, and assume various appearances. 

 The coral plants, as they are called, some- 

 times shoot out like trees without leaves in 

 winter ; they often spread out a broad sur- 

 'ace like a fan, and not uncommonly a large 

 oundling head like a faggot; sometimes they 

 are found to resemble a plant with leaves 

 and flowers; and often the antlers of a stag, 

 with great exactness and regularity. In other 

 parts of the sea are seen sponges of various 



magnitude, and extraordinary appearances, 

 assuming a variety of phantastic forms, like 

 large mushrooms, mitres, fonts, and flower- 

 pots. To an attentive spectator these vari- 

 ous productions seem entirely of the vege- 

 table kind ; they seem to have their leaves 

 and their flowers, and have been experimen- 

 tally known to shoot out branches in the 

 compass of a year. Philosophers, therefore, 

 till of late, thought themselves pretty secure 

 in ascribing these productions to the vege- 

 table kingdom ; and Count Marsigli, who has 

 written very laboriously and learnedly upon 

 the subject of corals and sponges, has not 

 hesitated to declare his opinion, that they 

 were plants of the aquatic kind, furnished 

 with flowers and seeds, and endued with a 

 vegetation entirely resembling that which is 

 found upon land. This opinion, however, 

 some time after, began to be shaken by Rum-, 

 phius and Jussieu, and at last by the ingeni- 

 ous Mr. Ellis, who by a more sagacious ami 

 diligent inquiry into nature, put it past doubt, 

 that corals and sponges were entirely the 

 works of animals, and that, like the honey- 

 comb which was formed by the bee, the co- 

 ral was the work of an infinite number of rep- 

 tiles of the polypus kind, whose united labours 

 were thus capable of filling whole tracts of 

 the ocean with those embarrassing tokens of 

 their industry. 



If, in our researches \after the nature of 



these plants, we should be induced to break 



off a branch of the coraline substance, and 



observe it carefully, we shall perceive its 



5Z* 



