[ 4 i6 ] 
This fhould certainly have made him minutely in- 
quire in what manner it was found, if buried under 
mofs, loofe on the ground, or perhaps near fome- 
of the canals, which communicate with the lea. 
Many accidents might have brought it thither, which 
is more probable than to imagine nature to go out 
of her ufual track. 
It is not improbable that that part of Holland has 
been overflowed by the fea, and this production lelt 
there when the water fubfided, or blown there by a 
ftorm, which I beg leave to believe till I am better 
informed. I do not in the leaft doubt of Mr. Meefe’s 
veracity ; but as that gentleman was more intent on 
difcovering vegetables than animals, and thinking 
this very like a dry Lichen fruticulofus, he did not 
fcruple to believe it to be one of that tribe j and 
therefore, perhaps, negleCted to obferve all thofe cir— 
cumftances, that we now wifh to be informed of. 
The irregular pedunculated figures or fructifica- 
tions (as DoCtor Pallas pleafes to call what is repre- 
fented in Tab. XVII. fig. 29.) teem to be rather a de- 
fect in the growth of the ramifications, efpecially 
as they differ from one another in fhape, and fome 
of them appear beginning to form other branches. 
In fig. a the whole confifts of two oppofite curled 
proceffes, with a fmall cavity between them at the 
top ; this cavity is filled up at fig. b. fo that the top 
becomes rounded j in fig. c. c. there feems to be a 
beginning of a continuation lengthways ; and in fig. 
d. it is ftill more plain the beginning of a branch. 
fea can grow on dry land. See Pallas Zoophyt. p. 427. -Nec 
magis miror Corallinam in ficco crefcentem, quain Lichejium 
cum Fucis fummam analogiam. 
^ 3 
