Biographical Memoir of Michel Adanson. 15 



plants, without having recourse to the barbarous terminology 

 which then began to be introduced, and which is unnecessarily 

 repulsive in so many modern works. Unfortunately these arti- 

 cles were not continued farther than the letter C. It is not 

 known what prevented the printing of the remaining part, 

 which was prepared. 



One of the most interesting questions of natural history is 

 that of the origin of the different varieties of our cultivated 

 plants. M. Adanson made many experiments upon those of 

 corn, and saw two arise in the barley species ; but they have 

 not been propagated for a long time *. Some naturahsts, carry- 

 ing the consequences of these facts, and others of a like na- 

 ture, too far, and maintaining that there is nothing constant m 

 the species, alleging even examples which seemed to prove that 

 new species are formed from time to time, he shewed that these 

 pretended species were, for the most part, nothing else than 

 monstrosities, which quickly returned to their original form -f*. 



For a long time, the motions of the leaves of the sensitive 

 plant, and of th'^ stamina of some plants, had been compared 

 to those of certain animals, although the former, for the most 

 part, required to be excited by an external cause. M. Adan- 

 son discovered spontaneous movements in a green fibrous sub- 

 stance, living at the bottom of water, and which he supposed to 

 be a plant. He gave a very accurate history of it |, and plac- 

 ed it at the head of his system of vegetables. M. Vaucher has 

 since considered it as a zoophyte, and named it Oscillatoria 

 Adansonii. 



It was M. Adanson who first discovered that the benumbing 

 faculty of certain fishes depends upon electricity. He made his 

 experiments upon the Silurus electricus §. It has also been as- 

 serted, that he was the author of the letter on the electricity of 

 the tourmaline, which bears the name of the Duke de Noya 

 Caraffa ||. He had, therefore, contributed in two important 

 points to the progress of this branch of natural philosophy. He 

 must, indeed, have been well acquainted with that science, as is 



• Memoires de 1' Academic, 1769. f Ibid. 1769. X Ibid. 1767. 



§ Voyage au Senegal, p. 134. 



II Paris 1759, See Le Joyand Notice sur Adanson, p. 12. 



