306 
BESCRIPTION, &C. 
selves appear in progress towards the formation of branches. 
This curious circumstance may be accounted for, by taking 
into consideration the condition in which the specimen was 
found, — detached, and floating along with sea-weeds. It 
may have been brought from a considerable distance, and, 
in its new station, have suffered from several external 
agents. Hence it appears to have acted in a manner simi- 
lar to what we have witnessed in the Sertularia gelatinosa 
of Pallas, — by absorbing the tentacula of its polypi, and 
enlarging their bodies into branches. 
These observations have been brought together, as ser- 
ving to illustrate the organisation of the zoophytes, a sub- 
ject which has been but imperfectly considered. The ex- 
terior covering of these animals is frequently, but errone- 
ously, viewed as similar to the extravascular dwellings of 
the bee, or the subextravascular shells of the Mollusca ; 
while, in its mode of growth, it is analogous to bone, a cir- 
cumstance on which its apparent vegetating pov/er depends* 
Plate IX. Fig 1. Natural size. 
% A portion magnified. 
Manse of Flisk^i 
March \% 1824. / 
