Celliferous CoRALLINES. 36 
my worthy and ingenious Friend Mr. Peter Collinfon, FR. S. Plate x1x, 
of a Specimen of this Clafs of Corallines, which he had fent == * “| 
him from America. Examining this carefully with the Mi. > 
crofcope, I plainly difcovered it to be the conne&ted Widus’s, | 
or Matrix’s of certain teftaceous Animals, like {mall iiiis- 0) eon 
or Werite; an Account of which I have had the Honour’ phe 
to lay before the Royal Society, in March 1753. 
That thefe little Snails are perfect Animals, no-body will 
doubt, who has thoroughly examined them ; and that the 
ultimate End of this curious branched Coralline, was made 
- fubfervient to the Purpofe of introducing thefe little Creatures 
into Life: But fuppofe it is afked, How do thefe go on to 
produce their Kind? This indeed will be difficult to an- 
fwer, unlefs we may by Analogy fuppofe, that thefe mi — 
nute Shell-fifh grow large, and become capable of {pawn- 
ing the whole Coralline, in the fame manner that the Buc- 
cinum of New York does its curious Matrices which are 
like long Bunches of Hops. See Plate XXXIIL Fig. a, 23, 
and 4. ~ y 
Or, let us fuppofe, that the teftaceous Animal, now in 
its utmoft Perfection, lays its Eggs 5 thefe turn into vermi- 
cular-fhaped Polypes, which, after they have fixed them- 
{elves to fome marine Subftance, rife up, and pufh forth ‘into: 
Branches of {mall Polypes in their Cells, in a double Row, 
alternately placed in refpect to one another ; each having its” 
“proper Cell, which is divided from the other by very thin 
Partitions: And each little Polype is fecured by an umbili- 
cal Ligament. | | 
From this State then of being {mall Polypes, we have ob- 
ferved, that they change into teftaceous Animals, connected 
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