NATURE OF CORAL. 187 



opinion of ancient times, this man reported that it 

 was hard. Nicolai, resolved to be sure of the fact, 

 dived himself, and ascertained the truth of the man's 

 statement. 



In 1671, an Italian naturalist decided that as coral 

 had neither flowers nor leaves, nor seeds nor fruits, 

 it ought to be classed with stones. This idea seemed 

 aU the more strange, considering that after the time 

 of Nicolai, a Lyonnese gentleman, named Poitier, 

 had observed, in 1613, the presence of a milky juice 

 in fresh coral, and had demonstrated that it \vas only 

 necessary to remove a kind of crust to give it the 

 polish and the red colour. 



Marsigli, in 1706, announced to the Academy of 

 Sciences that he had discovered small white bodies, 

 like flowei-s, on the surface of the coral. So long as 

 he left the branch of coral in sea-water, the flowers 

 remained expanded; but they instantly closed when 

 the coral was taken from the water, reappearing as 

 instantly when it was replaced. Without investigat- 

 ing whether these might be animals or not, Marsigli 

 concluded that the coral was a plant. 



'i'he merit of having discovered the true nature of 

 coral belongs exclusively to a Frenchman, Jean 

 Andre de Peyssonnel, a physician and botanist, wliose 

 observations were made on the coasts of Provence and 

 Barbary, at the instance of the Academy of Sciences. 



