THE COASTS OF SICILY. 231 



of species is secured, both iu the animal and vege- 

 table kingdom, nature, to a certain extent, recopies 

 herself. Following in the steps of all zoologists who 

 have studied polypes, we might instance those ani- 

 mals which are reproduced after the manner of 

 plants by gemmules, shoots, or bulbs. On the other 

 hand, we might learn from M. Adolphe Brongniart 

 how the granulations of the fovilla are agitated by 

 such violent movements as to deceive even the most 

 experienced observers. MM. Decaisne*, Thuretf, 

 and other botanists might show us how the fecun- 

 dating corpuscles of certain of the lower orders of 

 plants borrow one of the most essential characters of 

 animality, and move by the aid of vibratile cilia in 



* M. Decaisne, a member of the Institute, and professor at the 

 Jardin des Plantes, has published, amongst other works, some very- 

 important researches on the reproductive organs of the Fuci. He 

 was the first to show the error of regarding as animals those 

 corpuscles provided with flagelliform filaments which in these plants 

 play the same part as the pollen in organisms of a higher class in 

 the vegetable kingdom. 



f M. Thuret, who has made some extremely curious observations 

 on the reproduction of the Algaj, has discovered the existence of 

 vibratile cilia which give motion for several hours to the spores of 

 difi'erent Confervae. His later communications to the Academy on 

 the fecundation of the Fucaceae contain several important facts, 

 which led to the establishment of relations of affinity between the 

 two kingdoms of nature, even in respect to the mechanism of fecun- 

 dation. M. Thuret was the first who attempted to effect artificial 

 fecundation in these plants, from which he obtained several hybrids. 

 These labours, together with those of several German botanists, show 

 every day more and more how unfounded are the opinions that 

 have been frequently advanced, in reference to the transmutations 

 experienced by certain organisms, which, lying upon the confines of 

 the animal and vegetable kingdoms, have been supposed to pass 

 alternately from the one to the other. 



Q 4 



