[ 4 °+ ] 
HJS 2B 
■XL. ExtraB of a Eetter from John 
Ellis, Ef quire, F. R. S. to Dr . Linmeus, 
of Upfal, F. R. S. on the Animal Nature 
of the Genus of Zoophytes , called Corallina . 
^THAVE now finished a collection of 
1/1 JL that genus of Zoophytes, which yon 
call Corallina j and, with the afliftance of our learned 
friend Dr. Solander, have made a defcription of each 
fpecies : to do this with more exadnefs, I have taken 
care to difiedt them minutely, and topafs them in re- 
view under his eye in the microscope, in order to 
eftablifh a true general character of this genus. 
I have attended more particularly to examine the 
nature of thefe bodies, in order to confute the opi- 
nions of fome late writers on Zoophytes, who, for 
want of good microfcopes, and a proper care in che- 
mically analyrtng them, have afferted that they, were 
mere vegetables. 
The firft of thefe is Dr. Job Barter, of Zeeland, 
who, in the Philofophical Tranfadtions, Vol. L1L 
p. ill, arterts that the Corallines of Linnasus, which 
he fays he has accurately examined, are inoft evidently 
true plants of the genus of Conferva ; becaufe there 
are no polypes coming out of their tops, and that 
they have feed inclofed in their cells like other ma- 
rine 
