In TRoDUCcTION. 
one was of an animal Nature, which ocular Demonftration 
had already convinced me of, then the other mutft be {0 too. 
And, Iam perfuaded, that whoever compares them to- 
gether, and views attentively the Succeffion of rifing Tubes, 
that change infenfibly into Ramifications of Cells in the Ke- 
ratophyton, and, at the fame time, examines the Structure 
_of that Veficulated Coralline, called the Herring-bone Co- 
ralline, Plate X. Fig. 2, &c. will be of my Opinicn, How _ 
the woody or horny Part of the Stem and Branches are form—~ 
ed, feems to be the great Difficulty to the curious Enquirer 
to account for, unlefs he is,allowed to fuppofe it a Vegetable. 
But, during thefe Obfervations, I fortunately received from 
America, a curious Specimen of a Sea-Fan, Part of which 
is delineated in Plate XXVI. Fig. C, O, D, K, which plainly 
demonftrates, that Animals of the Polype-kind are the Fa- 
bricators both of the horny or woody, as well as the calca- 
rious, Covering of this curious and numerous Plant-like Co- 
lony of Infects. | 
The next Clafs, which is the Efchara, -deferves our No-- 
tice, and a nicer Scrutiny. There appears a great Probabi- 
lity of fome of thefe being the Matrices or Ovaries of certain — 
Species of Shell-fifh, perhaps of the Bivalve Kind. 
So little Enquiry has yet been made into the Origin of 
Shell-ffh, that we feem ftill ignorant of the Production, or 
farft Beginning even of the moft common Sorts among us, 
fuch as Oyfters, Cockles, and Muffels. , | 
Many of the A/eyoniums, or thofe mifhapen Sea-produc- 
tions called fo, deferve our Attention. If we could examine 
thefe Bodies carefully, at different Seafons of the Year, L 
do not in the leaft doubt, but they would amply reward our - 
Curiofity with a Fund of new Difcoveries. 
xV 
Ags 
