410 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 



were plants, had received a strong corroboration of their 

 opinion from the elaborate researches of the Comte de Mar- 

 silli, who, having detected the existence of polypes in coral 

 and madrepore, had, under the influence of the fashionable 

 theory, described them as being literally their blossoms or 

 flowers.* Peyssonnel, therefore, had to contend not only 

 against the prejudices of the vulgar based on appearances 

 which spoke direct to the outward sense, but against the ac- 

 tual observations of a naturalist of acknowledged merit; and 

 the counter observations of Peyssonnel, although numerous and 

 unequivocal, were yet mixed up with so much that was fanci- 

 ful or erroneous, that it is not wonderful his opinion was re- 

 ceived with coldness and suspicion. Reaumur, to whom 

 his communication was intrusted, even concealed the name 

 of the author when he laid it before the Academy, with 

 the benevolent intention doubtless of shielding him from the 

 scorn and ridicule that might possibly be the lot of one who 

 had ventured to contradict the observations of an Italian 

 Count, and to oppose the established belief ;-f and he immedi- 

 ately afterwards read, before the same academicians, an essay 

 of his own, in which he opposed the theory of Peyssonnel 

 with numerous objections, and attempted to explain the 

 growth of coral in accordance to the admitted principles of 

 vegetable physiology. | 



The memoir in which Peyssonnel originally proposed his 

 doctrine, does not appear to have been published : the only 

 account I have seen of it is contained in the essay of Reaumur, 



* " Ce fut une decouverte qui fit grand bruit dans le monde naturaliste, que celle 

 des fleurs du corail." Reaumur. Marsigli's work was published in 1711. His 

 name is sometimes written Marsilli. For an account of his works see Haller, Bib. 

 Bot. i. 630; and the reader will find a rapid sketch of his adventurous life in Cuvier's 

 Hist, des Sc. Nat. iii. p. 3302. 



f " L'estime que j'ai pour M. Peyssonnel me fit meme eviter de la nommer pour 

 1'auteur d'un sentiment qui ne pouvoit manquer de paroitre trop hasarde." 

 Reaumur. 



J Observations sur la formation du corail, et des autres productions appellees 

 Plantes pierreuses. Par M. de Reaumur. " II prend pour une Plante 1'ecorce gros- 

 siere et sensible du corail, tres-distincte de ce que nous appellons corail, et de plus 

 une autre ecorce beaucoup plus fine, et que les yeux ne distinguent point de la vraye 

 substance coralline qu'elle revet ; et tout le reste du corail, presque toute la substance 

 coralline n'est qu'une pierre sans organisation." Hist, de 1'Acad. Roy. des Sc. 1727, 

 p. 51 ; and more particularly his own memoir in the same vol., p. 380. 



