CORALLIFERL ^35 7 



I Ap tl'f Corallines are Ritnnteil on the very border, the indefinite bonier we may say, wliicli Pcp.Trates the nnimal 

 Kingdom ; and as many zoologists ami botanists are fuliy as zealons Cor an extension of territory, as for under- 

 standing- and t,'overninj; well that whicli unquestionably belongs to tliem, the Corallines are, like sponges, claimed, 

 and taken and retaken by both parties. The real cause of this, is the apparent impossibility of arriving at a trae 

 definition of what constitutes a plant or an animal, or what is the specific and unequivocal difference between the one 

 and the other. Baron Cuvier, who \ias one of the most cautious as well as the most profound of zoologists, rarely 

 speculates beyond the facts, and never enters into warfare on debateable ground. There is enough, however, eveit 

 in his short synopsis, to show that the Corallines are really animals, although their polypi have not been discovered, 

 and even although there should be none to discover. From the exceedingly varied structures of animals, and 

 more especially from the extremely simple organization of some of those of the present grand division, we can 

 easily see tliat no one orgnn of the higher animals is necessary for carrying on the functions of animal life, in 

 some manner or other. The Hydra is a remarkable instance of this ; for, simple as it is in its structure, it is far 

 more instinct with life than those which, according to our types, we are disposed to consider as the most perfect 

 animals ; and, from the functions which it can perform with its simple organization, we cannot help concluding 

 that there may be animals still more simple, and that a mere epidermis, or fibre, or any other nanieable part 

 however simple, may contain in it all the principles of life and reproduction. In addition to this, wliich we grant 

 is only hypothesis, tliough very probable hypothesis, we may remark, that it cannot have failed to strike the atten- 

 tive reader that all the substances elaborated by these Corallines are of an animal nature, not a vegetable one. 

 The hard parts of them are always composed of salts of lime, the cement of which is an animal gelatine, and the 

 soft parts are also animal. In the most plant-like of them there is no substance in the least resembling that of the 

 plants with which they agree most in form ; and as little is there any substance similar to theirs in the most 

 analogous of the true vegetables. This may be considered as coming as near to absolute proof of the animality of 

 these productions, as analogical reasoning can come. Indeed, what need we more? P'or, though we should dis- 

 cover Polypi upon the Corallines, all that we could conclude from that would be that they were comjjound animals, 

 with a sort of heads and moutlis ; whereas, according to our present knowledge of them, they are animals without 

 either: and, as we find animals of other genera equally deficient of those parts, we have no reason to conclude 

 tiiat the Corallines may not be also without them. The fact is, that the subtle arguments which are sometimes 

 raised to prove the animality of animals, always tend to the proof of quite another position, namely, that the 

 animal in question is not itself, but some other one, having ditferent organs, or parts, of some kind or other. 

 Foi" want of the fundamental definition to wliich we have alluded, it is impossible to argue upon what is animal 

 orwhat is vegetable, abstractedly from the description of that matter of which the subject in question is composed. 

 Therefore we ha\-e no foundation upon which to build, but the matter of which the subject under consideration 

 is composed ; anil though there are some difficulties even here, yet the line of distinction is, upon the whole, pretty 

 broad and definite, although, perhaps, it is not easily described in words. No man, however, who possesses ordi- 

 nary discernment, can confound the hard matter of a plant with that of an animal ; and tliough, externally, many 

 of the Corallines resemble bushes, or branches, the substance of them is no more like wood than it is like the 

 horns of a Deer. The argument now used is equally applicable to the Sponges ; and tliough it is not demonstra- 

 tive in the present state of our knowledge, and probably never will become so in any state of it, yet it comes as 

 near to demonstration as any thing that we can obtain upon mixed questions, in which life, either animal or 

 vegetable, is in\"o!ved.] 



THE THIRD FAMILY OF THE CORALLIFERI,— 

 The Corticati. 

 This family incUules all the genera in -which the -uhole of the Polypi of any one Polypidoni are 

 ohviously connected hy a common sul)stance, of a thick, or fleshy, or gelatinous consistency, in cavities 

 of which the individual developements of the polype are contained ; and they, and the containing 

 membrane, or skin, are supported hy an internal axis, or core, varying in form and consistency, in the 

 different members of tlie family. The polypi of such as have been observed are a little more complex 

 in their organization than those of the preceding families of this order, and bear a good deal of resem- 

 blance to Actinia. Tliey have a distinct stomacli, from which eight intestinal tubes proceed ; and of 

 these two long ones penetrate the common mass, and two shorter ones appear to be ovaries. They 

 are divided into four tribes, Ccratophyta, Lilhophyta, Natantia, and Spovgia, chiefly on account of 

 the form and texture of the supporting substance. 



Ceratophyta, — 

 Which compose the first trilie, have the interior axis fibrous, like wood, but resembling horn in its 

 substance and consistency ; there are two genera of them, both very numerous, and the last admits of 

 subdivision. 



Andpathes, black coral. These have the axis branched, and fibrous, so as to have a ligneous appearance. The 

 bark, or integument wdiich contains it, is so soft, that it shrivels or comes otT after death ; and then the axes have 

 the appearance of dry sticks. 



Gonionia, have the hurny or fibrous part of the axis invested with a covering so thick, and so full of calcareous 



