208 LECTURE XII. 



fleshy coat or bark, of a red-lead colour, and beset 

 with numerous small warts, from each of which 

 proceeds a head of the general polype or animal 

 part : those heads are divided into eight parts or 

 arms, and, (as I had occasion before to observe), 

 induced Count Marsigii to suppose that they were 

 the flowers of the Coral. The red Coral, like most 

 of the other Gorgonia?, is first produced from a 

 small egg. The eggs of this Zoophyte being dis- 

 charged by the Polypes, fall on the rocks and at- 

 tach themselves by their glutinous moisture, and 

 when fixed begin to grow. Before the Coral is 

 excluded from the egg it is quite soft, and has no 

 appearance of the bony part ; but when it has 

 grown to the height of about the eighth of an inch, 

 it assumes the hardness of bone, and begins to mul- 

 tiply its polype-heads, and to form new branches. 

 I should here observe that Linnaeus somewhat im- 

 properly placed the Red Coral in the genus Isis, 

 under the name of Isis nobilis. 



The genus Isis differs from that of Gorgonia in 

 being of a jointed fabrick, instead of being com- 

 posed of continued branchings. It is of a stony 

 hardness, but the joints are of a horny nature, or 

 much softer. The whole Coral is covered with a 



