39 
Naturalists generally agree in the characteristics of each genus and species ; the 
great perplexity lies in not having some standard types as monuments to designate 
the line where vegetable lile shall end, and animal life begin. Johnston quotes De¬ 
shay es “ L irritabilite manifestee par le mouvement,” as the true definition of ani¬ 
mals, and then very strangely argues that the definition will exclude Sponges and 
Corallines from amongst them. Why \ The retreat of the polype to his polypidom 
cell, is a movement that manifests irritability as clearly as the retreat of the tortoise’s 
head within the shell manifests sensibility. If Johnston will visit the shore of our un~ 
rivalled Bay, where all life partakes of the freedom of the political constitution, we 
will show him the irritability of the Algae manifested by the most violent paroxysms 
in their external antheridia. 
The propagation of the Corallines is by ovaries, buds, and ciliated ovules, that 
originate mostly in the pulp of the parent, or in ovarian vesicles both external and in¬ 
ternal, and which, though of a different substance, are similar to pericarp or spore 
case in Algae. The ova, or young, move freely about in the water until a suitable 
habitation is found, when they become permanently attached, throw out their tenta- 
cula in quest of food, and rapidly assume the form and size of the parent. The po¬ 
lype, or contractile part, is carnose or fleshy; the polypidom, or flexible root, stem, 
and branches, is rigid and somewhat horny. Different opinions prevail among au¬ 
thors as to the vascular, or “ extravascular” nature of the polypidom ; that is, whe¬ 
ther it is permeated by nutritious or absorbent vessels, and whether it can thereby 
undergo intestinal changes in growth when once formed. The advocates of the “ ex¬ 
travascular” system cannot be very close observers of nature. Analogies in all organic 
life show a vascular system ; finger nails, hair, horn, and polypidoms, are all vascu¬ 
lar, and grow from nourishment distributed throughout the structure. I have ocular 
demonstration of the enlargement of the polypidom, from having marked the locality 
of several individual Tubularia larynx on Rabineau’s bath at Castle Garden; and in 
daily visits noticed the enlargement, until the polypidom had attained double the ori¬ 
ginal diameter. 
The circulation or current through the polype has been frequently noticed, and is 
not, so far as I know, questioned by any Naturalist of the present time. Cavolini, 
Spallanzani, Mfiller, and others, describe the circulation as not only into the stomach 
of the polype, but also through the tube of stem and branches of the polypidom. Very 
little is known of the sexes ; some Naturalists have supposed that a difference noticed 
in the polypes of the same or distinct polypidoms, may characterize the sexes ; it is 
generally conceded that the same polypidom, with its numerous polypes, is capable of 
reproducing its species. 
