THE LYTHOPHYTES AND SPONGES. 421 



CHAP. V. 



OF THE LYTHOPHYTES AND SPONGES. 



It is very probable that the animals we see and are acquainted 

 with, bear no manner of proportion to those that are concealed 

 from us. Although every leaf and vegetable swarms with ani- 

 mals upon land, yet at sea they are still more abundant ; for the 

 greatest part of what would seem vegetables growing tliere, are 

 in fact nothing but the artificial formation of insects, palaces 

 v,'hich 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 appearance of a forest of trees under water, millions of 

 plants growing in various directions, with their branches en- 

 tangled in each other, and sometimes standing so thick as to ob- 

 struct navigation. The shores of the Persian Gulf, the whole 

 extent of the Red-sea, and the western coasts of America, are 

 so choked up in many places with these coraline substances, 

 that though ships force a passage through them, boats and swim- 

 mers find it impossible to make their way. These aquatic 

 groves are formed of different substances, and assume various 

 appearances. The coral plants, as they are called, sometimes 

 shoot out like trees without leaves in winter ; they often spread 

 out a broad surface like a fan, and not uncommonly a large 

 bundling head like a faggot ; sometimes they are found to resem- 

 ble 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 ap- 

 pearances, assuming a variety of fantastic forms, like large 

 mushrooms, mitres, fonts, and flower-pots. To an attenti\e 

 spectator, these various productions seem entirely of the vege- 

 table kind ; they seem to have their leaves and their flowers, and 

 have been experimentally 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 ve- 

 getable kingdom ; and Count Marsigli, who has written very labo- 

 riously and learnedly upon the subject of corals and sponges, has 

 not hesitated to declare his opinion, that they were plants of the 



2 N ,"i 



