POLYPES. 179 



the revolutions of the earth, to electricity, &c.; 

 then to putrescent marine animals, which cer- 

 tainly do emit light ; but it is now generally 

 known to be the property of a variety of the 

 more frail inhabitants of the deep, and the above 

 remark renders it extremely probable that it was 

 given them by their Creator, to defend them from 

 the attack of their enemies, whom a sudden 

 augmentation of the intensity of their light may 

 frighten from their purpose. 



2. But the most celebrated polypes, and those 

 which produce the most wonderful effects in 

 some parts of the globe that we inhabit, belong 

 to the section in which the polypary is lamelli- 

 ferous, or having the star-shaped oscula, or 

 mouth, from which the polype exerts its tenta- 

 cles, lamellated or divided into various channels, 

 separated from each other by elevated processes, 

 resembling the gills of a mushroom : these, with 

 several others related to them, Linne regarded 

 as belonging to one genus which he denominated 

 Madrepora, but which Lamarck has divided into 

 eighteen ! It is amongst the species of this 

 genus, even as circumscribed by the author just 

 mentioned, that we are to look for the polype, 

 which is instructed by its Creator, not only to 

 erect rocky reefs of vast extent and wonderful 

 solidity which often arrest and perplex the 

 course of the navigator, and greatly increase the 

 perils of navigation and submarine mountains 



