466 VHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I767. 



I come now to answer Dr. Baster, who asserts positively, in his memoir in 

 the Phil. Trans., that all the corallines, which you and I have described are 

 plants of the genus of conferva. To explain myself, it will be necessary to let 

 him know what I mean by a conferva, and what I would be understood by a 

 coralline, according to your system. By a conferva, I mean a plant with jointed 

 filaments, either single or branched, bearing fruit, which are disposed in different 

 ways. By a coralline, I mean an animal growing in the form of a plant, whose 

 stem is fixed to other bodies. The stem is composed of capillary tubes, whose 

 extremities pass through a calcarious crust, and open into pores on the surface. 

 The . branches are often jointed, and always subdivided into smaller branches, 

 which are either loose and unconnected, or joined, as if they were glued toge- 

 ther. This difference then will evidently appear by putting each kind into an 

 acid liquor. The coralline will immediately discover the nature of its calcarious 

 surface, by a strong fermentation; when the conferva will not appear in the least 

 affected. This acid liquor will likewise soon dissolve the calcarious substance in 

 the coralline, by which means the minute vessels that lead to the pores on the 

 surface will become visible; whereas the conferva will unalterably remain the 

 same, and be rather preserved than corroded by the acid. 



When Dr. Pallas, who supports the opinion of Dr. Baster, comes to the che- 

 mical analysis of the corallines, he tells us that he had not time nor opportunity 

 to try them ; but depends on the report of other authors. This dependance on 

 the authority of others, to overturn what I think we have established with very 

 strong evidence, will, I am in hopes, convince him of the propriety of that well 

 chosen motto of the r. s. " Nullius in verba;" which I find he has adopted as 

 the common seal of his epistles to his literary correspondents: and he will now 

 have a further opportunity of complimenting Dr. Baster on making a second 

 apology for what he has advanced against me in the Phil. Trans., by showing 

 him, that they have both been mistaken in blending two very different genera of 

 the animal and vegetable kingdoms of nature together. 



To make this difference appear still more evident, I come now to lay before 

 you a new scene of nature; which an accurate examination into the fructifica- 

 tion, as well as the articulations, of some of the confervas, afforded me. In- 

 deed the minuteness of these objects would scarcely seem worth while to exa- 

 mine into so critically, if my reputation had not engaged me to show the wide 

 difference between them and corallines. This, joined to some remarkable disco- 

 veries, which I made in the year 1754 on the coast of Sussex (in company with 

 Mr. G. D. Ehret, p.r.s.) in the fructification of this class of plants, which be- 

 fore that time were esteemed by botanical writers to have no fructification at all, 

 has induced me to lay a few specimens of them, with their magnified drawings, 

 before the r. s. In examining these plants, I was amazed to find two species of 



