202 
LECTURE XIL 
others were possessed of the same power, but 
seemed more allied to the Actinias or Sea-Anemo- 
nies, and to the Medusas or Sea-Blubbers. After- 
wards the celebrated Mr. Ellis, by repeated obser- 
vations made about the British coasts, proved be- 
yond all doubt, that the smaller corals, commonly 
known by the name of Corallines or Sea-Mosses, 
were actually so many ramified Sea-Polypes, co- 
vered with a kind of strong, homy case, to defend 
them from the injuries to which they would other- 
wise be liable in the boisterous element in which 
they are destined to reside. 
Mr. Ellis’s observations on the harder or stony 
Corals, as well as the observations of many other 
philosophers, have at length proved also that these 
stony corals are equally of an animal nature ; the 
whole coral continuing to grow as an animal, and 
to form by secretion the strong or stony part of 
the coral, which at once may be considered as 
its bone and its habitation, which it has no power 
of leaving, and a coral of this kind is therefore a 
large compound zoophyte. 
I shall mention a few species both of the small- 
er and larger corals as illustrations of what has 
been said relative to their growth and structure. 
