Mr. ellis on the Gorgonia. 17 
forth from thence their polype fuckers in fearch of food ; 
for drawing them in fuddenly, andcontradlingthe Sphinc- 
ter mtifcles of thele ftarry cells, in order to lecure thefe 
tender parts from danger; and like wife that there is, as 
we have already mentioned, proper fecretory dudls, to 
furnifh and depofit the ojjeous matter, for the fupply of 
the bone, both of the Item and branches as well as the 
bale, to fecure its ftation with firmnefs, amidft the boifte- 
rous element where it is appointed to be. That there 
are ovaries in thefe animals is without doubt ; for in moll 
of thofe that were lent to me prefer ved in fpirits, the 
eggs were very vifible upon making longitudinal fee- 
tions in the fame manner and form as in the alcyonium 
digit at um, called dead man's handy fee Philofophical 
Tranfadtions, vol. LIII. tab. xx. fig. 11. but much 
larger ; and it is very probable, many of thefe animals 
are viviparous , as we have feen among the fertularia . 
So that I muft conclude, that though they grow in a 
branched form, they are no more allied to vegetables 
than they are to the ramified configurations of fal ammo- 
niac ; to the elegant branched figures in the Mocha and 
other Gems, called dendrites ; to the arbor Diana, or the 
arborefeent figures of the Cornifh native copper: confe- 
quently, that animal life doth not depend on bodies 
growing according to a certain external form. Hence it 
appears, that this metamorphofis of a plant to an ani- 
mal is a flowery expreflion, and in my opinion, better 
fuited to the poetical fancy of an ovid, than to that pre- 
cife method of deferibing which we fo much admire in 
a natural hiftorian. 
Vol. LX VI. 
D 
II. She 
