IpS PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, ("aNNO 1746. 



A Description of a curious Sea-plant ; Frulex Marinus FlabeUiformis Cortice 

 Verrucoso ohductus. Doodii. Raii Hist. Tom. Hi. p. 7, et Synohs. Edit. 3 

 p. 32. Coralloides granulosa alba. J. B. Tom. Hi. p. SOQ. Erica Marina 

 albafrutescens.* Mus. Pet. 50. Keratophyton Flabelliforme, Cortice Verrucoso 

 ohdvxtum. Raii Syn. Edit. 3, p. 31. By Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., M.D. 

 late P.R.S. 'N°476, p. 51. 



King Charles II. had got, in his closet at Whitehall, this coralline, as Sir 

 Hans calls it ; which he supposes had been presented to him by some of his 

 sea-officers, appointed to cruise in the soundings, lying off the west of England, 

 towards the Atlantic ocean. Sir Hans had it from thence entire, and in per- 

 fection, from some of the late commanders on that station (of which fig. 4, pi. 4, 

 represents an entire figure when young), who, by their sounding lines, brought 

 it up from the rocks at the bottom of the sea ; and which being a very curious 

 coralline, it is extraordinary it has been so little taken notice of. 



It rises to 4 feet high, from a woody basis, near an inch diameter, giving it a 

 firm foundation on the rocks in the bottom of the sea, spreading out its branches 

 like a fan, the substance or inner part of which is woody, of a light brown, or 

 blackish colour, as at a, b, covered all over with a thin tuberculated crust, of an 

 ash-colour, or sometimes yellowish, seldom joined together, as the rete mari- 

 num, but loose, and distorted ; and not straight, as most of this kind. 



Sir Hans has had it from Tangier, Antigua, and Newfoundland ; from which last 

 place, one with the stella arborescens Rondeletii, p. 121, (mentioned by Mr. 

 Winthrop, in these Transactions, N° 57,) having its branches fastened several 

 times round those of this coralline ; a branch of which is here figured, with the 

 animal sticking to it, at fig. 5, in which a is the mouth, and fig. 6 represents the 

 back part of it, having a crack in it by some accident. 



John Bauhin is the first author who describes it plainly, both by words, and 

 an imperfect figure of a small piece or branch. 



It is likely, that many of the coralline substances mentioned by authors, may 

 be this, or parts of it, the crust being rubbed off more or less, and its colour 

 changed, and so described for different corallines. 



Several Electrical Experiments. By the Rev. Henry Miles, D.D. and F.R.S. ' 



N° 478, p. 53, 



The stick of Brimstone with which Dr. M. kindled lamp spirits so readily, 

 having been set up in a cupboard in an erect position, lost all its electric virtue, 

 and could not be made to attract a down-feather, or a fine thread. This was to 

 him unaccountable, unless it be that the exposing it to the air, by its not being 



• The zoophyte here described, is the Gorgonia verrucosa, Lin. Gmel. 



