with a Description of a New Species. 91 



called them Polypi. The French Royal Academy of 

 Sciences, wishing to establish the discoveries beyond a 

 doubt, commissioned Bernard de Jnssieu and Guetard to 

 make special examinations of marine animals npon the 

 coasts of France. Guetard (says Mons. Lamouroux) ought 

 to be classed amongst the naturalists who have written most 

 upon Polypi; but he is hardly cited by modern authors, 

 although his memoirs are printed in many collections. 

 Though principally engaged upon the fossil forms, he did not 

 neglect those existing in the present day. His two essays 

 on sponges include all that has been written on the subject 

 from the times of Aristotle to his own. 



Linnaeus commenced to study Polypi in 1744 or 1745. 

 It was he who employed the name of Zoophytes, while his 

 descriptions give grounds for the suspicion (says Lamouroux) 

 that he regarded them as intermediate between plants and 

 animals, and partaking of the nature of both. He was, 

 however, the first who tried to establish definite principles 

 on which their study could be pursued. The method that 

 he established for their classification has been followed, or 

 has served as the type for all who followed him. He de- 

 termined the principal genera, and augmented the number 

 of species, and finally rendered as much service to this 

 province of zoology as he had done to botany by stripping 

 it of all its cumbrous apparel of phrases and synonyms, which 

 rendered its study so difficult and so disheartening. 



Loeffling, Butner, Donati, and Roesel published their 

 memoirs about the same time; but all contemporary works 

 sink to insignificance by the side of that of our countryman, 

 Ellis (An Essay towards a Natural History of Corallines ; 

 London, 1754, 39 plates), a translation of which appeared in 

 France the year following. No work ever gave such an 

 impetus to the subject. It was hailed with acclamation 

 by every zoologist on the continent, both for the fidelity of 

 its descriptions and the beauty and accuracy of the plates. 

 He published subsequently a number of papers on different 

 coral animals and Zoophytes, which are to be found in the 

 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58, and 66 vols, of the Philosophical 

 Transactions. Ellis died in 1776, and up to the time of his 

 decease was engaged on another elaborate work, for which 

 many plates had been engraved. It was edited subsequently 

 by Solander* (a pupil of Linn?eus) and Sir Joseph Banks, 



* Solander died before the work was finished, and it was completed by 

 Ellis's daughter. 



h2 



