604 
ZOOPHYTES. 
than probable, that unless he had been stimulated 
by the consideration of the high personage to 
whom all his labours were directed, he would never 
have made this part of natural history his particular 
study. From the observations which Mr. Ellis 
made while constructing his marine pictures, he was 
convinced that several of the subjects, which had 
hitherto been considered by naturalists as vege- 
tables, were in reality of animal production. This 
opinion was so strongly seconded by many of his 
friends, that he resolved to determine how far his 
suspicions were just, by examining the substances 
in their recent state. For this purpose, in August 
1752, he went to the Island of Sheppey, and took 
with him a celebrated artist, that the subjects 
which he thought worthy of preservation might be 
faithfully represented. There he had an opportunity 
of seeing those disputed beings, called branched 
corallines, alive in sea-water ; and, by the help of a 
microscope, was fully convinced that these apparent 
plants were ramified animals in their proper skins ; 
not locomotive, but fixed to the shells of oysters, 
muscles, &c. While residing in this place, he had 
an opportunity of observing the animal inhabitant 
of the Great Tooth Coralline ; and his success in 
this first essay induced him to pursue the inquiry 
with attention. 
During his stay at Brighthelmstone, in the sum- 
mer of 1754, in company with that excellent artist 
Mr. Ehret, he observed a great variety of corallines, 
which were faithfully committed to paper by his 
