no PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNXO 1757, 



appear evidently to the naked c) e to consist of a combination of vermicular tubes 

 closely connected together : and, if we trace thcj^e little tubes to their starry 

 openings on the surface, at b, we shall plainly discover them to be the red tes- 

 taceous coverings of certain marine polypes, which have raised themselves thus 

 upright, and disposed themselves into this remarkable vegetable form. 



In order to form some idea, how these masses are increased and extended to 

 the sizes they are often met with, and where the same regularity of shape is 

 preserved in the large that we find in the small ; it is more, than probable to sup- 

 pose that the species of polypes that compose this coral, breed as we find all 

 other polypes do : and this appears more evident from what Mr. E. has disco- 

 vered in many kinds of corallines (see plate 38 of his Essay on Corallines,) where 

 the young polypes in some species are produced in the egg state, while others 

 fall in great numbers from their matrices, completely formed, down to the roots 

 of their parent corallines, either to begin a new race of the sarne species near 

 them, or to increase the trunk, and extend the ramifications of the plant-like 

 figure from which they had just descended. 



From observing this method in nature we shall the easier account for the 

 progress of those generations of young testaceous polypes of this coral ; which 

 appear succeeding each other, and raising themselves up from the root or base, 

 passing along the stem and branches, and covering the whole anew with their 

 shelly cases : and in this their passage upwards we may observe, in the specimen 

 before us, how they have involved and incrusted the small lateral branches of the 

 fonner generation, so as almost to hide their appearance. Hence we may trace 

 them extending to the extremities of the upper branches, and there forming a 

 new series of slender twigs, proportionable to those they had just covered, still 

 keeping order and exact symmetry in the whole structure. 



The distinguishing character of this red coral, after we have considered its 

 fistulous texture, is the knotty joints of which it is composed : these appear 

 more distinct, and are placed at a greater distance in the smaller branches tlian 

 the large ; and, as we descend to the trunk, the traces of these inequalities but 

 just appear. From these protuberances, or knots, the lateral branches take their 

 rise ; and as these and the leading branches grow up together, they frequently 

 inosculate at these joints, forming a kind of network, like what we observe in 

 many of those species of keratophyta called sea- fans. 



The surface of this coral, when recent, is covered with a mealy friable matter, 

 of a yellow colour, not unlike that of the true red coral, but much fuller of 

 Rule raised starry cells. The figure of these cells is owing to the radiated po- 

 sition of the claws of the polypes. On removing this friable matter, we observe 

 that the polypes of these cells have had a communication with a small hole or 

 opening into one of the tubes that lie immediately under it. This frequent in- 



