132 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



of a hard, central axis of coral, covered over with a soft skin or 

 living bark, imbedded in which numerous little beings, each 

 possessing a circle of eight fringed arms or feelers, are to be 

 noted. These little beings are the "coral-polypes." That 

 they are sensitive is proved by their habit of shrinking within 

 the living bark of which they form part, when irritated or 

 alarmed ; and as the appearance of the polypes is flower-like 

 to a high degree, it is not surprising to find that the Count 

 de Marsigli should have described and figured the sensitive 

 " flowers " of the coral " plant " in his celebrated work en- 

 titled "La Physique de la Mer," published in 1706. The 

 ideas which prevailed at that date regarding the exact 

 structure of the supposed coral " plant," however, were of 

 improved kind as compared with prior conceptions of its- 

 nature. Ovid states the popular belief of the classic period 

 when he relates that the coral was a sea-weed which existed 

 in a soft state so long as it remained in the sea, but had the 

 curious property of becoming hard on exposure to the air. 

 Messer Boccone, in the iyth century, was the first to refute 

 this idea, and showed that, although the coral "plant" 

 possessed a soft outer bark, it was in reality a permanently 

 hard structure even in its native waters. It so happened, 

 that about 1723 a pupil of Count Marsigli's, Jean Andre de 

 Peysonnel by name, obtained a commission from the French 

 Academy of Sciences to study the coral " plants " in their 

 native seas. Proceeding to Marseilles and to the North 

 African Coast, Peysonnel soon found reason to alter the 

 views with which he had been indoctrinated respecting the 

 nature of the living parts in the coral. Studying the red 

 coral attentively, this observer said that the coral " flowers " 

 of Marsigli were true animals, and were in fact closely 

 related to the familiar but plant-like " orties " or sea- 

 anemones, which Reaumur in 1710 had shown to be animals. 

 In his remarks on the coral-polypes, Peysonnel compared 

 the coral-animals to " une petite ortie ou poulpe." And 

 that the comparison of the coral-polype to the " ortie " or 

 anemone is a perfectly just one, is proved by the fact that 



