126 BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 



what is that other one about ? It has put forth in 

 array all its little fleshy horns or feelers ; with some 

 of them it has laid hold of an insect, which it is in 

 the act of conveying to its mouth ; it soon is made 

 to disappear in the aperture, and the dilating of the 

 under extremity, or stalk of the flower, plainly evin- 

 ces its progress downwards ; these are certainly the 

 functions of animal life, and from these and such like 

 actions, what at first might appear as nothing more 

 than vegetables, have justly been denominated Ani- 

 mal Flowers -, while, from their being capable of 

 propagation by cuttings, and of being muitiplied by 

 divisions, they may, with equal propriety, be desig- 

 nated Salt-water, or Sea Polypuses, and be reckoned 

 among the wonders of the Almighty in the deep. 



That these substances resemble polypuses, by the 

 singular property of being multiplied and grafted 

 by slips, experience has put beyond a doubt The 

 reproductive power of the Barbadoes animal flower 

 is prodigious. Many people coming to see these 

 strange creatures, and occasioning some inconve- 

 nience to a person, through whose grounds they were 

 obliged to pass, he resolved to destroy the objects of 

 their curiosity ; and that he might do so effectually, 

 caused all the holes, out of which they appeared, to 

 be carefully bored and drilled with an iron instru- 

 ment, so that we cannot suppose but their bodies 

 must have been entirely crushed to a pulp ; never- 

 theless they appeared again, in a few days, from the 

 same places. 



