cells, together with the radical tubes, bring it nearer to*
this genus. And yet both this and the Cellaria Cereoides,,
or Torchthiflle Coralline, when they grow old, differ,
from the reft of this: clafs; for then we fee them approaching
towards the genus of Millepora, by having additional
ranges of cells furrounding their firft cells, efpe--
cially the former.' ‘
In my oblervations on this genus I cannot pals over the"
Singularity of the Cellaria neritina, or Snail-bearing Coralline.
The likenefs to Nerits of its rows of little round'
adhering bodies, which are open on one fide, together
with their Ihell-liKe figure and pearly fhining look^ in-
dined me to believe at firft that they were the young ones'
o f luch a fmall kind of fhell-filh; But by comparing
them with the figures of others of this genus, they appear
rather to be what we have called Ovaries.
Or perhaps they are the young o f the animal defended
by a teftaceous covering like a little fhell-fifh, which at'
the time of its maturity Separates from its umbilical chord,
by means of which the microfcope difcovers to us, that
it has-been connected to its cell, from whence it dtops
and foon adheres to a proper fubftance as a bafe, beginning
to form a Coralline like the parent animal. ■
This Teems more probable,- than to'confider each of
them as an ovary, which ufually contains many eggs of
the fame animal.
A late writer, who is a ftrong advocate- for the vegetation
of Zoophytes, fuppofes thefe little pearl-like figures,
as alfo thofe like the heads of birds in the Bird’s-head Coralline
(or Cellaria avicularia) to be their Nedtariums,.
analogous to what is fo called in the flowers of fome
plants.
In
In fome well preferved fpecimens of this Ipecies o f Coralline,
colledted at the Bahama Iflands by the Rev. Mr.
Clarke, I have obferved fomething very like teftaceous little
bodies at the extremities of tfieir radical tubes:-from
thefe bodies the tubes have crept along till they have been
properly fixt; The Coralline then begins-to grow eredt,
and the polypes appear in the cells ; after this the eggs or
young ones appear, one at the fide of each cell ; it is then
perfedh I- have mentioned thefe three ftages of the Coralline,
becaufe I think* them fomething analogous to the
different changes in moft infedts. In the Zoophyte, the
various ftates are all connedted together at length ; butin..
the infedt,. thefe different ftates are brought about by different
changes of the exterior furface of the fame body.
Imuft,. before I conclude thefe remarks, obferve, that
the advocates for vegetation in thefe bodies, call the
wrinkled adhering tubes at the bafe, roots : but they
Ihould examine them ftridtly, and they would find them
meer. cylinders,, and that they do not grow fmaller towards
their extremities, which is.evidently the cafe with
the roots of vegetables.
I. Cellaria plumofa.
Cellaria cellulis unila- ■
teralibus alternis extror- ■
fum acutis, fainis dicho-
tomis ere Sits fafig iatis.
Soft-feathered. Celleferous ■ Coralline.
Celleferous Coralline with
alternate fharp-pointed cells,
looking one way, and ending
at top in dichotomous
branches.
Soft-fèathered. Coralline. Ellis Coraliin.. pag. 33.;
tab. 18.
Sertularia faftigiata- Linn,-Syft.:Nat. Ed. 12. p. 1314.
2. Cellaria