ty 
p ALM-BRANCH CORALLINE. 
T H I S coral of Angular beauty, moft elegant in the form and arrangement o. 
its cells, required a very elaborate procedure in delineating the vane ap- 
? ear ances it made, in proportion to the higher powers of the microfcope, to w uc ^ 
ts ^mirable ftrufture was fubjeded. The difficulty of applying high magmhers 
0 thefe fubjefts when alive, is very great ; the little animals are lo ^ pre 
f Spending danger, when in the leaft difturbed, that they keep moft cautioi / 
tlr ed in their cells, when they find themfelves in any unufual fituation. P e , 
Ration of the water around them, foon makes them ceafe to expand, an 
,° nt inuance of that is fatal to their exiftence. They have, in their origina a 0 ^ s > 
^ etl ever accuftomed to that perpetual movement of the ocean whic \ t\c ti es 
Cc ation : the beft method to preferve them lively and aftive, to d.fclofe their 
°nderful beauty, is therefore to create a continual movement of the water around 
b > contriving gently to pour in a perpetual fupply, and let the foperfluous 
ater run off: for there would feem, in their cafe, to be a pabulum vita in the fea,. 
ji ne <*ffary to the life of Tome, at leaft, of its inhabitants, as that of air is to animal. 
5 and which > when exhaufted > r ° on leaves the moft aftlVC ° f thC C ° ra mh 1_ 
rnotionlefs ; they languiffi and die. 
Thi s may explain, in part, the difficulty of preferving corals alive, and confe- 
J ; . entl y the caufe of their having, been fo feldom Teen. The fpecimens here ex- 
r ■ bltcd in the plate, were dredged up on a (tone from the bottom, feveral miles 
of ° m ffiore, in about forty fathom water ; the ftone was covered with a variety 
b ° the r orders of corallines, many of which were of thofe fo accurately defcribe 
y M r. E Uis ^ 
2 his fpecies feemed the more Angular, as its charafters would ftrike a kind of 
dlu m between corals and corallines. The cells are wreathed round, and con- 
J Ute a tubular ftem, but no living principle feemed to occupy the fpace within, 
tell WCre there an y vifible apertures whereby it could have communicated with the 
3 b « from each cell to the adjacent ones the living line could be traced, 
anf When the Y played awhile, drinking in the water, it changed the colour ot the 
the mated thread i and in fome fpecimens on the ftone, the openings of the Tides or 
from whence the new polypes were to iffue, were iig ■ y P° 1 e ? an 
4 dded r °»nd with tubercles, apparently alfo open, but too infinitely minute and 
bear a conje&ure of their ufe. 
