t 499 ] 
genus in Dillenius’s Hiforia Muf corum. They are 
of a deep-green moffy colour, are hollow, of an 
irregularly fpherical figure, and of different fizes, 
from an inch and half to three inches in diameter. 
They are cover’d with very jfhort villi externally, and 
the thicknefs, from their external to their internal fur- 
face, is about a quarter of an inch; their texture is 
mofl compact the nearefi: to the. furface. I fhould 
denominate them globofe conferva. 
Mr. Ray, in his hiftory of plants, Vol. I. p. 83, 
defcribes a plant, which he found in Sicily, fomething 
like this now fent by Mr. Dixon. When treating of 
the Algce Pomum of John Bauhin, which, according 
to this laft, was of the colour of fponge, he fays, 
Sfuod nos in Sicilia littovibus invenimus , colore erat 
viridi , et propius accedebat ad bur fa marina Cafal- 
pini defer iptionem ; erat enim intus concavum , ex 
mufeofa feu fpongiofa J'cilicet capillari fubflantia con - 
fans , et ofiolum habebat rotundum , qua lapidibus ad- 
harebat. 
The plant now before you wants the ofiolum , by 
which it adheres to the rocks, taken notice of by Mr. 
Ray, in all the fpecimens I have feen ; and, from its 
molly lubftance, can by no means be ranged under 
the genus of alcyonium , where Mr. Ray has given us 
the paffage juft now mention’d. 
R r r 2 
LXXXIV. 
