[ 3IO 3 



Blacks. 



Bark of Oak, ^ercus Rohm, ' 



Water Horehound, Lycppus europaus,, 



94. Animalia Composita. A. Back, 1759, 



Under the term Animalia Compofita are compre- 

 hended the two laft orders of the clafs of Vermes^ 

 making the laft links in the chain of animal na-. 

 ture and thus conne6ting it with the vegetable 

 kingdom. Thefe (in oppofition to thofe of the 

 three foregoing orders of the fame clafs, which 

 jive fmiple and feparate from each other) are called 

 Compound Animals^ as being conne6ted together by- 

 one common bafe or fupport, either in the form 

 of irregular or rudely-branched ftcny maffes, of 4 

 calcareous nature, as the Lithophyta^ or Corals % 

 or, as fixed to one common ftalk more or lefs 

 branched^, as the Zoophyta^ or Corallines, and fome 

 others. 



In order to give a more perfedt idea of the na- 

 ture of thefe animals, the author holds forth the 

 general analogy between animals and vegetables, 

 principally to fhew that the former are not, like 

 the latter, endowed with that multiplicative power 

 of propagating themfelves without the particular 

 energy and exertion of the generative fundion ; 

 whereas the Animalia Compofita feem to unite thefe 

 powers, fince they not only appear to propagate 

 by eggs^ or 'vha foholes^ but alfo by progreffive 

 extenfiqn and ramification. 



The animals of the Lithophyta, like the 

 fejlacsai fabricate their owia bafe of calcareous 



matter^ 



