202 LECTURE XII. 



others were possessed of the same power, but 

 seemed more allied to the Actiniae or Sea-Anemo- 

 nies, and to the Medusas or Sea-Blubbers. After- 

 wards the celebrated Mr. Ellis, by repeated obser- 

 vations made about the British coasts, proved be- 

 yond all doubt, that the smaller corals, commonly 

 known by the name of Corallines or Sea-Mosses, 

 were actually so many ramified Sea-Polypes, co- 

 vered with a kind of strong, horny case, to defend 

 them from the injuries to which they would other- 

 wise be liable in the boisterous element in which 

 they are destined to reside, 



Mr. Ellis's observations on the harder or stony 

 Corals, as well as the observations of many other 

 philosophers, have at length proved also that these 

 stony corals are equally of an animal nature ; the 

 whole coral continuing to grow as an animal, and 

 to form by secretion the strong or stony part of 

 the coral, which at once may be considered as 

 its bone and its habitation, which it has no power 

 of leaving, and a coral of this kind is therefore a 

 large compound zoophyte- 



I shall mention a few species both of the small- 

 er and larger corals as illustrations of what has 

 been said relative to their growth and structure, 



