ZOOPHYTA ASCIDIOIDA. 
245 
of cells are formed, and in several the multiplication goes on in 
a regular arithmetical progression ; but in others the cells are 
heaped together without apparent regularity, as in Alcyonella 
and Alcyonidium, where the softness of all the parts seems to 
allow of a non-regulated succession of buds. The general dis- 
position of the cells, however, in this order is certainly after the 
quincunx, affording examples which the learned Sir Thomas 
Browne would have gladly adduced in proof that “ Nature geo- 
metrizeth and observeth order in all things, and of the generality 
of this mystic figure.” Nor indeed were they entirely overlooked 
by this observant physician. “ The spongy leaves of some sea- 
wracks,” he says, fi£ Fucus, Oaks, in their several kinds, found 
about the shoar, with ejectments of the Sea, are over-wrought 
with net-work elegantly containing this order (the quincunx) : 
which plainly declareth the naturality of this texture ; and how 
the Needle of Nature delighteth to work, even in low and 
doubtful vegetations.”* * * § 
Whilst the composite individual is thus increased by gemmules 
or buds, the species is propagated and diffused by means of ciliat- 
ed ova, of which the source has been a matter of some difference 
of opinion among naturalists. There appear at certain seasons, 
on many of these zoophytes, round pearly testaceous bodies 
which are placed on or above the mouths of the cells. Ellis 
believed these to be their matrices or ovaries 66 which, in time,” 
he says, ct may unfold and extend themselves into those many 
beautiful tree-like forms that we find them in.”f This opinion 
was also adopted by Pallas, because of the seasonal appearance 
of the bodies in question, and because they are found only over 
full-grown and matured cells.f No one after this seems to have 
held other belief, § until recent discoveries, demonstrating the 
complexity of the organization of this order, rendered the exis- 
* The Garden of Cyrus, p. 33. Lond. 1686. folio. 
f Essay on Corallines, p. xi — Ellis’s earlier conjectures, which, being erro- 
neous, it is unnecessary to detail, may be seen in Phil. Trans, abridg. (an. 
1753) x. p. 346. 
| Elencli. Zoophytorum, p. 36. 
§ “ I am inclined to consider them as ovaria enclosing the germs of future 
individuals ; having observed that these vesicular bodies are sometimes whole, 
and in this case I have always found them tilled with small globular bodies.” 
Lamouroux , Corail. p. 58. 
