4'22 HISTORY OF 



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 

 Rumphius and Jussieu, and at last by the ingenious Air Ellis, 

 who, by a more sagacious and diligent inquiry into nature, put it 

 past doubt, that corals and sponges were entirely the works of 

 animals, and that, like the honeycomb which was formed by the 

 bee, the coral was the work of an infinite number of reptiles of 

 I lie 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 whole surface, which 

 is very rugged and irregular, covered with a mucous fluid, and 

 almost in every part studded with little jelly-like drops, which, 

 when closely examined, will be found, to be no other than rep- 

 tiles of the polypus kind. These have their motions, their arms, 

 their appetites, exactly resembling those described in the last 

 chapter ; but they soon expire when taken out of the sea, and 

 our curiosity is at once stopped in its career, by the animals 

 ceasing to give any mark of their industry ; recourse, therefore, 

 has been had to other expedients, in order to determine the na- 

 ture of the inhabitant, as well as the habitation. 



If a coraline plant be strictly observed, while still growing in 

 the sea, and the animals upon its surface be not disturbed, either 

 iiy the agitation of the waters, or the touch of the observer, the 

 little polypi will then be seen in infinite numbers, each issuing 

 from its cell, and in some kinds the head covered with a little 

 shell, resembling an umbrella, the arms spread abroad, in order 

 to seize its prey, while the hinder part still remains attached to 

 Its habitation, from whence it never wholly removes. By this 

 time it is perceived, that the .lUmber of inhabitants is infinitely 

 greater than was at first suspected ; and that they are all assi- 

 duously employed in the same pursuits, and that they issue from 

 their respective cells, and retire into them at pleasure. Still, 

 however, there are no proofs that those large branches which 

 they inhabit, are entirely the construction of such feeble and 

 minute animals. But chemistry will be found to lend a clue to 

 extricate us from our doubts in this particular. Like the shells 



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