Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/1019

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are thefe. *. The white fta lithophyton called fhrubby coral- line. 2. The purple fea lithophyton, called purple fhrubby coralline. 3, The yellow punctated lithophyton. 4. The white knotty lithophyton. 5. The lithophyton with a white verrucofe coat. 6. The grey rugofe lithophyton. 7. The fmall white rugofe lithophyton. 8. The pale yellow lithophyton with a fmooth bark. 9. The great, grey American litho- phyton with a punctated bark. 10. The fmaller yellow Ame- rican lithophyton with a punctated bark. 11. The great black American lithophyton befet with tubercles pointing up- wards. 12. The fmall white American lithophyton befet with erect tubercles. 13. The white American lithophyton refembling the leaves of polypody. 14. The American li- thophyton with compreffed branches refembling pods. 15, The black woody corai lithophyton. 16. The black, hairy, or briftly lithophyton. 17. The white, hairy, or briftly litho- phyton. 18. The larger black, hairy, briftly lithophyton. 19. The circumvoluted black fetaceous lithophyton. 20. The lithophyton variegated with yellow and rofe colours,

21. The lithophyton variegated with white and rofe colour.

22. The great purple reticulated lithophyton. 23. The fmaller purple reticulated lithophytcn. 24. The great yellow reticulated lithophyton. 25. The great reticulated lithophyton, yellow on one part and white on the other. 16. The tall tamarifk like erect lithophyton. 27. The knotty and reticu- lated lithophyton. 28. The prickly fcrulaccous lithophyton. The nature and origin of coral has been as much dilputed as any one point in natural knowledge. The moderns can nei- ther agree with the anticnts about it, nor with one another ; •and there are, at this time, among the men of eminence in 'thofe ftudies, fome who will have it to be of vegetable^ fome of mineral origin, and others only the cafes of fome of the animal kingdom. It were eafy to overthrow all that has been advanced to- -ward the proving it to belong to the animal kingdom. Its being of mineral origin, has gained much more ground, how^ ever, and the excellent and truly great Dr. Woodward, has flood up as a very vigorous champion for this opinion. It may not be improper to obfervc, that it was of abfolute rteceflity, to this gentleman's fyftem, of the folution of all foffils at the deluge, that coral fhould be proved to be one ; becaufe, he gives it as a certainty, that all the foffile corals have been in a ftatc of folution ; which, according to his own fyftem, had they ever been vegetable bodies they could not have been. But if his fyftem be juft, in this point, there are abundant proofs in the folate world, whatever he might think to the contrary, of coral's being a vegetable ; for there are unqueftionable authorities in the bodies them- selves for proving, that they never have been in a ftate of folution ; and muft have been, therefore, according to his fyftem, a vegetable body ; for we frequently find numbers of corals in our clay and chalk pits, which have upon them the very fhells of the balani marini, which had affixed them- felves to them while they were growing in the fea, and yet remain on them in their natural poftuies.

It might be poffibly objected, that fhells being affixed to coral, could be no proof of its not having been once dif- iblved, and having concreted again : fince, if it concreted ■m a fluid, where thefe fhells were fufpended in great abundance, they might have been affixed to it by be- ing wafhed againft it, during that fecond concretion. But, in this cafe, the fhells muft have been lodged in, as well as upon the corals ; which is never found to be the cafe ; and they would alfo have been laid on it in any pofture that happened readieft ; whereas thofe found remain- ing on the foffile corals are ever found in their natural por- tions, and living pofture. Nor are we to imagine, that the foffile corals have been in a ftate of folution, becaufe they are often of a ftony hardnefs, or have matter very different from the coralline in their conftitut'ion ; for we find this fre- quently the cafe in foffile wood, fome of which is almoft ■wholly formed of ftony matter, and a vaft deal wholly of that of the pyrites ; yet this being a vegetable body, beyond con- tradiction, cannot have been in a ftate of folution, according to the Woodwardian fyftem. Hill's Theophr. p. 97. To this, it may be added, that after that gentleman has been at all poffible pains, to prove the marine corals truly of fofiile origin, and formed, by an appofition of particles, not by ve- getation ; yet a chemical analylis of them, obliges him to own, that they have fomething of a vegetable matter in them. And how are we to fuppofe that this vegetable matter comes there ? When we can be informed how anv thino- of a vegetable matter can be produced, otherwife than from feeds; we may fuppofe, according to this gentleman's fyf- tcm, that corals are formed by a mere appofition of particles wafhed out of the neighbouring rocks ; but till then we certainly have a much more rational account of their fe- veral elegant figures, in the concluding, that like all other fubftances, which are compofed of vegetable matter, they are vegetables.

One of the moft remarkable fpecles of the fmall lithophyta, we have any where an account of, is that defcribed by Mr. Lewenhoek, though without any particular name in Jhc Philofophical Tractions.

The fifft, notice this gentleman took of this water plant was accidental j for ftanding by the fide of a canal, whofe water was very clear, he obferved fomething glitter in it as it pafled along ;. examining this with the beft diligence by the naked eye, could give no farther idea of its figure, but that of its being an aflemblage of fmall fibres. On taking up fome of this water from the canal into a glafs tube, there was per- ceived fome few of thefe floating branches of matter, which ftuck to the fides of the glafs, and could not be removed from thence, though the water was fhook about them. On viewing thefe with a microfcope, they are always found very beautifully divaricated, and reprefent, in figure, cither fome of the large and branched lithophyta, which grow to rocks in the fea, or the boughs of a tree, with numbers of ra- mofe twigs upon them. They grow in the very fame man- ner from the fides of the tube that thefe fea plants do, from ftones and other things under the water. The part which feems in the place of a root is a fmall roiuidifh flatted par- ticle, applied firmly againft the fides of the glafs ; from this arifes the main ftem, and that again divides into a -neat number of finer branches. Phil. Tranf. N° 286. p. J4'30. Thefe plants do not faften themfelves to the glafs on the in- ftant of the waters being received into it ; but fometirnes, when firfr. taken up, there appear nothing of them, and on the ftanding twenty or thirty hours of the water in the glafs, 'the fmall particle attaches itfelf to fome part of the iides, and from this the reft of the plant grows in its due form and order.

When thefe plants have arrived at a certain fize, they do not increafe any farther ; but there is an appearance at their 'extremities, very much refembling the flowers of fome plants, and which might very naturally be miftaken for the proper flowers of thefe : they appear like little rofes, compofed of four round bodies, each refembling the petals or leaves of flow- ers ; thefe alfb refemble flowers, "in this particular, that they foon decay and fall off. But it would be a very great error to fuppofe them fuch, for they are in reality no part of the plant, but only a fort of fmall animals, which find this a proper place for their rending, and conftantly fix themfelves thus to the extremities of the twigs of thefe plants, where they propagate their fpecies, and then perifh. It is not uncommon to fee a fmall round body endued with animal motion, fall from one of what appear the petals of this flpwer, and go where it pleafes. It is not only on the fummits, or twigs of thefe tips, that thefe animals live ; they are alfo found very frequently on their fides, and even on the main trunk ; and they in the fame manner propa- gate their fpecies ; but it is only on thefe fummits of the branches, that they are fo diftinctly vifible. It is remarkable, that the fucceffive growth of this plant, from its firft appearance, is (o very fudden, that it is fcarce poffible to find it in a time of increafe, but it is ufualiy found at its full growth as foon it is obferved at all. All the ramifi- cations of it are lb extremely minute, and fine, that it requires a good microfcope to fee them, with any degree of precifion, but toward the top it always divides itfelf it intofomeextremc branches, which are fo very flender, that they even efcape the microfcope itfelf; thefe, however, are terminated, at their fummits, by the fame animalcules, four in a clufter, and refembling flowers.

The weight of thefe animals bends down the branch they adhere to, fo that they often appear out of the line of the reft of the boughs, but they are known to belong to the plant ; though the branches to which they are attached, are wholly invifible, becaufe they never remove their places ; and if the whole little plant be fhook, by putting the water in a flight motion, thefe flowers, as they appear to be, are always moved in the fame manner as the reft of the branches are, and never can be feparated from them, unlefs by fuch a motion of the water, as will wholly deftroy the plant. Thefe branches are in a continual vibration while in the water ; and it is a very plcafant fight to obferve the mo- tion of the clufters of animals at the ends, as well of the vifible as of the invifible branches. But the way to come at a perfect view of the whole plant, with all its ramifications, is to pour all the water gently out of the glafs, and the whole plant wjll then be laid iideways along the glafs, and all its ramifications diftinctly traced. The whole plant, though it appear bright and glittering in fome lights, yet it is in ge- neral of the colour of a branch of the oak. The ingenious obferver of thefe plants, feems in fome doubt, as to their being in reality of vegetable origin ; he was apt to fuppofe them mere combinations of particles, hanging one to another, in chains, like filings of iron, by means of a magnet : but as there is, in this cafe, no fuch external force to put them in this arrangement; and as the whole growth and appearance of them refembles very exactly that of a larger lithophyton, there is no doubt of their heing in reality fmall plants of the fame genus with the larger. The antients extolled coral as a cordial and alexipharmic ; alfo as a cooling and aftringent medicine. They ufed it externally, as well as internally : we ufe it only internally, and that as an aftringent and abforbent in diarrhoeas, the fluor albus, and haemorrhages, but in none of tliefe cafes

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