VOL. L.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 135 



of the animal at the top of it ; the stem of this is incrusted with 4 different coral- 

 lines and escharas, like the conferva tig. 10; and then he asks, which of these 5 

 polypes made the tubular coralline ? To give him some proof of the animal nature 

 of this coralline, let him consult Ray's Synopsis, ed. 3, p. 34, n. 4, and there 

 he will find one of this species, called adianti aurei minimi facie planta marina, 

 noticed so long ago as the year 17 i 3, by Dr. Lloyd, as a zoophyte, from its 

 stem or tube's being full of a thick reddish liquor, rather resembling blood than 

 the juice of a plant ; which on pressing the stem communicated with the little 

 head at top. 



His 4th argument is, that as upon one and the same coralline plant you shall 

 find different kinds of polypes ; so in different species of coralline the same 

 polypes : and to confirm this, he quotes my Essay on Corallines ; where it is 

 remarked, that the polypes in the denticles of the setaceous or bristly coralline, 

 N° 1 6, appear to be like those that are on the lobster's-horn coralline, N^ 1 g. 

 And to illustrate this, he observes that bees and wasps always build their cells 

 invariably the same ; and that therefore these 2 corallines should be the same. 



But he also takes this matter wrong : he has considered, in all his observa- 

 tions, the heads of those parts of the polype in which are the mouths, arms, or 

 tentacula, which appear coming out of the cups, denticles, and at the ends of 

 the' tubes of the corallines, as so many whole and entire animals, without ever 

 observing that the body of the animal is contained in the tubular part of the 

 root, stem, and branches ; and that these differ from each other widely both in 

 size and shape, as he may plainly see in the 2 corallines he has instanced. Fur- 

 ther, his comparison to bees and wasps, and their cells, is not conclusive : for 

 these ramified, hollow, and denticulated bodies, called corallines, which we so 

 frequently find dead on our shores, are properly skins of certain marine polypes, 

 and not nests, as those constructed by these little winged animals are. And yet 

 we find as great a regularity in the same species of these corallines, as when we 

 compare 2 oak-trees to one another, or 2 of Mr. Trembley's branched fresh- 

 water polypes to one another. 



His 3 th argument is, that if corallines were formed by polypes, neither the 

 polypes, nor even their cells, would ever fix on living animals, or any other 

 bodies. Here we may observe, that the consequence he draws does not follow : 

 for corallines may be formed or produced by certain species of polypes, and yet 

 polypes of another species may be found adhering to other bodies, and even to 

 animal bodies. 



By his 6th argument he endeavours to prove, that the vesicles which are found 

 in regular rows on the sea-fir coralline in winter, fig. 14, do not belong to it ; 

 and are no more than the eggs of some sea-insect deposited on it, of which there 

 may be a great variety. But to convince him of his mistake, let him take off 



