[ 190 3 
tions of young teftaceous polypes of this coral ; which 
appear to us fucceeding each other, and railing them- 
felves up from the root or bafe, paffing along the 
ftem and branches, and covering the whole anew 
with their flielly cafes : and in this their paffage up- 
wards we may obferve, in the fpecimen before us, 
how they have involved and incrufted the fmall 
lateral branches of the former generation, fo as al- 
moft to hide their appearance. From hence we may 
trace them extending themfelves to the extremities of 
the upper branches, and there forming a new feries 
of (lender twigs, proportionable to thole which they 
had juft covered, ftill keeping order and exadt fym- 
metry in the whole ftrudture. 
The diftinguifhing character of this red coral, 
after we have confidered its fiftulous texture, is the 
knotty joints, of which it is compofed : thefe appear 
more diftindt, and are placed at a greater diftance, in 
the fmaller branches than the large ; and, as we de- 
fcend to the trunk, the traces of thefe inequalities 
but juft appear. 
From thefe protuberances, or knots, the lateral 
branches take their rife j and as thefe and the lead- 
ing branches grow up together, they frequently in- 
ofculate at thefe joints, forming a kind of network, 
like what we obferve in many of thofe fpecies of 
keratophyta, which are called fea-fans. 
The furface of this coral, when recent, is covered 
with a mealy friable matter, of a yellow colour, not 
unlike that of the true red coral, but much fuller of 
little raifed ftarry cells. The figure of thefe cells is 
owing to the radiated pofition of the claws of the 
polypes. 
Upon removing this friable matter, we obferve, 
that 
