20 C E L L A R I A. 



cells, together with the radical tubes, bring it nearer to 5 

 this genus. And yet both this and the Cellaria Cereoides, 

 or Torchthiftle Coralline, when they grow old, differ 

 from the reft of this clafs ;. for then we fee them ap*- 

 proaching towards the genus of Millepora, by having ad- 

 ditional ranges of cells furrounding their firft cells, efpe- 

 cially the former. 



In my obfervations on this genus I cannot pafs over the 

 fingularity of the Cellaria neritina, or Snail-bearing Co- 

 ralline. The likenefs to Nerits of its rows of little round* 

 adhering bodies, which, are open on one fide, together, 

 with their mell-like figure and pearly mining look, in- 

 clined me to believe atfirft that they were the young ones 

 of fuch a fmall kind of fhell-fifh. But by comparing 

 them with the figures of others of this genus, they appear; 

 rather to be what we have called Ovaries. 



Or perhaps they are the young of the animal defended 

 by a teftaceous covering like a little fhell-fifh, which at 

 the time of its maturity feparates from its umbilical chords 

 by means of which the microfcope difcovers to us, that 

 it has been connected to its cell, from whence it drops 

 and foon adheres to a proper fubftance as a bafe, begin- 

 ning to form a Coralline like the parent animal. 



This feems more probable, than to confider each of 

 them as an ovary, which ufually contains many eggs of 

 the fame animal. 



A late writer, who is a ftrong advocate for the vegeta- 

 tion of Zoophytes, fuppofes thefe little pearl-like figures, 

 as alfo thofe like the heads of birds in the Bird's-head Co- 

 ralline (or Cellaria avicularia) to be their Ne&ariums, 

 analogous to what is fo called in the flowers of fome 



plants. 



In 



