8 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 



de Jussieu and Guettard * proceeded, in the autumns of 1741 

 and 1742, to different parts of the coasts of France with the 

 view of examining their zoophytical productions ; and both were 

 soon satisfied of the truth of the animal theory. Bernard de 

 Jussieu in particular shewed that it was equally applicable to 

 many zoophytes which Peyssonnel had not examined, and whose 

 animalityhad not yet been suspected, viz. the flexible and delic'ate 

 iSertulariai, the Flustra, and the Alcyonium or Lobularia, the 

 latter of which seems to have excited much astonishment by the 

 protrusion of its thousands of polypes of a size large enough to 

 be seen and examined at ease with the naked eye. f 



The memoir which Jussieu presented to the Academy of 

 Sciences in Paris is short, but characterized by great distinct- 

 ness and precision in the detail of his observations, and illus- 

 trated with excellent figures ; — his aim being evidently not to 

 entrap our blind assent by a declamatory display of the new 

 wonders opened up in science, but to prove his conclusion to 

 be the true one in the eye of reason and sobriety. He limits 

 his descriptions and remarks to four species, viz. Alcyonium di- 

 gitatum, Tubularia indivisa, Flustra foliacea, and Cellepora 

 pumicosa, which seem to have been selected as examples of the 

 more remarkable tribes, for it is evident that he had examined 

 manymore, buthisobservationson them were reserved for another 

 memoir which, I believe, was never written. X — Reaumur's ad- 



Lamouroux speaks highly of the labours of this naturalist, whose attention 



seems to have been chiefly directed to fossil polypidoms and to sponges Corall. 



Flex. Introd. p. xvii. See also Hall. Bib. Bot. ii. 341. 



f E.vimen de quelques productions marines qui ont ete mises au nombre des 

 Plantes, et qui sont I'ouvrage d'une sorte d'Insectes de mer. Par. M. Bernard 

 de Jussieu. J 4th Nov. 1742. Published in 1745 See Hall. Bib. Bot. ii. 281. 



I That Jussieu had ascertained the animality of the Sertulariadte is, I think, 

 indisputable from the following passage. " II s'en presentoit ensuite quantite 

 de celles qu'on appelle Corallines, les unes pierreuses dans lesquelles je ne se- 

 marquai rien, et les auti'es dont les tiges et les branches, et ce qiu passoit pour 

 feuilles, etoient d'une apparence membraneuse, dans lesquelles je decouvris que 

 ce qu'on y prenoit pour feuilles disposees alternativement, ou dans un sens op- 

 pose, n'etoit autre chose que de petits tuyaux contenant chacun un petit insecte." 

 — Mem. de I'Acad. Roy. des Be. an. 1742. p. 292 Reaumur is still more ex- 

 plicit. : " Apres avoir observe dans I'eau meme de la mer plusieurs especes deces 

 productions si Men conformees a la maniere des plantes, il vit sortir des bouts de 

 toutes leurs bi'anches et de tous leurs noeuds, ou de toutes leurs articulations, 

 dc petits animaux qui, commeles polypes a panache d'eau douce, se donnoient 

 tantot pins, tantot moins de mouvemcnt, qui coinme ceux-ci s't'panouissoient en 



