BRITISH CORALLINES. 213 



reous matter in the corallines," he says, " appears to pro- 

 ceed from the surface inwards. The outer covering is ob- 

 served opaque at particular places, as if incrusted, while the 

 substance within is green throughout, and contains little 

 lime. The calcareous deposition proceeds more and more 

 towards the interior, the green colour and cellular structure 

 disappear, but, at the commencement of this calcifying pro- 

 cess, the vegetable cellular structure can be quickly and dis- 

 tinctly reproduced by means of acids. The deposition of 

 lime begins with the very first appearance of the branches ; 

 the minutest stalks of the Cor. opuntia were found to con- 

 tain some lime, the quantity of which increased as the bran- 

 ches grew,"* 



The idea of the animality of these bodies may be consi- 

 dered to have been henceforth relinquished. Their non- 

 conformity to other zoophytes, and the absence of poly- 

 pes in them, was demonstrated ; for the dim and dubious 

 signs of them which some previous enquirers had seen were 

 shown to be either the young shoots of parasitical confer- 

 va;, or the abnormal prolongations of the fibrous axis of the 

 coralline. Ilcncc Blainville removed them from the class 

 of zoophytes to a separate one, which he named " Calci- 

 phytes."-!- But this example has not been followed by any 

 British naturalist, — and in spite of all evidence to the con- 

 trary, the corallines find an incongruous place in our latest 

 Fauna, nor will any of our florists adopt them.:}: These 



* " Observations on the Anatomy of the Corallina opnntia, and some 

 other species of Corallines, by Professor Schweigger" in the Edin. New 

 Phil. Journal, Vol. i. p. 222; also Edin. Phil. Journ. iii. p. 414. 



f Manual d'Actinologie, p. 545. 



f " Let Zoologists keep their cryptogamia, — the vegetable kingdom 

 has more than enough," exclaims my friend Dr Graham, the much re- 



