LETTERS FROM MILNE-EDWARDS 



and belonging to our great edition of Cuvier's Regne 

 Animal. 



" Of late little has been written on living corals. Dor- 

 bigny has figured some Chilian species of Sertularia, 

 Flustra, etc. (in Voyage dans V Amerique du Sud), and 

 Nordmann has made some interesting observations on 

 the structure of Cellularia (see Demidoff, Voyage en 

 Crime'e). Ehrenberg's paper on the classification of 

 corals was printed in the transactions of the Academy of 

 Berlin, and only a few separate copies were distributed 

 by the author; I have, without success, tried to find one 

 for you, and if you are not able to procure it otherwise, 

 I will have a manuscript copy made for you. You are in 

 all probability acquainted with Goldfuss's great work in 

 which so many fossil corals are described and figured. 

 A few numbers of a similar work on the fossil corals of 

 France, by M. Michelin, have lately appeared, and some 

 species have also been described in Murchison's book on 

 the Silurian formation. 



' Esper's work on Zoophytes can easily be procured 

 here my copy cost three hundred francs and if you 

 wish it, I will direct my bookseller to get one for you 

 from Germany. In short, if, in that way or in any other, 

 I can be of any service to you, I shall be very happy in 

 doing so, and must beg you will not hesitate to dispose 

 fully of me. If you wish to exchange any of your dupli- 

 cates of non-described Crustacea or insects for European, 

 Asiatic, or African species, I will also negotiate the busi- 

 ness with our national museum." 



MILNE-EDWARDS TO DANA 



" PARIS, JARDIN DU Roi, le 20 dec., 1845. 



" Je regrette beaucoup de n'avoir pu me procurer plutot 

 les renseignements que vous m'avez demande" relative- 

 ment a quelques uns des polypiers demerits par Lamarck, 

 et j'espere que ma lettre vous parviendra encore en temps 

 utile. Je ne puis cependant vous donner tous les details 

 dont vous me dites avoir besoin, car plusieurs des especes 

 en question ne se trouvent pas dans notre Museum. La 

 collection de Lamarck e"tait la proprie"te particuliere de 

 ce naturaliste et apres sa mort a t vendu au Due de 

 Rivoli, qui plusieurs annees apres la cede au Museum, 



349 



