198 
CLASS III.— ORDER IL 
Some authors have imagined that the cells were dis- 
cernible on the exterior of this envelope ; but an at- 
tentive examination of the Polypidom has enabled me 
to discover in the warty Gorgonias, characterised as 
having projecting cells, that these cells were no other 
than the bodies of the polypi themselves, whose sum- 
mits were crowned with their retractile tentacula. This 
polypus is not enclosed within a cell ; it is more or 
less projecting, and its exterior is a mere prolonga- 
tion of the fleshy mass that forms the rind ; so that 
what has been hitherto looked upon as the cell and 
shelter of the polypus, is nothing more than a ca- 
vity destined to enclose the organs most essential to 
the existence of the animalcule, whose more exposed 
parts are found destroyed by contact with other bo- 
dies. These observations are easily made on Gor- 
gonias that have been preserved with care ; in these 
the imagined cells are all obliterated, and this oblitera- 
tion is produced by the part of the animal to which the 
tentacula are attached ; this part is sometimes clearly 
distinguished from the other part of the rind by a 
circular contraction, which gives it a rather globular 
appearance. In the Gorgonias of the third section 
(distinguished as having projecting polypi) the lower 
part of the body is frequently marked with transverse 
wrinkles, which are occasioned either by desiccation or 
the situation of the polypi ; these wrinkles constitute 
no particular character. In the species of the first 
section, where the animal appears not to have had 
the power to raise itself beyond the rind, the open- 
ing of this imagined cell is frequently garnished with 
cils lengthened more or less, which I take to be the 
