68 Natural History of British Zoophytes. 



pears to have repeated the experiments of Trembley, and had an 

 opportunity of observing the habits of the Plumatella ; and, as he 

 remarks, since the number of species of animals which are covered 

 by the waters of the sea is much greater than that of the fresh waters, 

 so it seemed natural to presume that not only would polypes be 

 found in the ocean, but in greater numbers and variety than in 

 ponds, rivers or rivulets. To ascertain the validity of this conjec- 

 ture, and to settle if possible the discrepancy between the observa- 

 tions of Marsigli and Peyssonnel, his friends Bernard de Jussieu 

 and Guettard * proceeded, in the autumns of 1741 and 1742, to dif- 

 ferent parts of the coasts of France with the view of examining their 

 zoophytical productions ; and both were soon satisfied of the truth 

 of the animal theory. Bernard de Jussieu in particular shewed that 

 it was equally applicable to many zoophytes which Peyssonnel had 

 not examined, and whose animality had not yet been suspected, viz. 

 the flexible and delicate Sertularise, the Flustra, and the Alcyonium 

 or Lobularia, the latter of which seems to have excited much asto- 

 nishment by the protrusion of its thousands of polypes of a size 

 large enough to be seen and examined at ease with the naked eye.t 

 The memoir which Jussieu presented to the Academy of Sciences 

 in Paris is short, but characterized by great distinctness and pre- 

 cision in the detail of his observations, and illustrated with excellent 

 figures ; — his aim being evidently not to entrap our blind assent by 

 a declamatory display of the new wonders opened up in science, but 

 to prove his conclusion to be the true one in the eye of reason and 

 sobriety. He limits his descriptions and remarks to four species, viz. 

 Lobularia digitata, Tubularia indivisa, Flustra foliacea, and Celle- 

 pora pumicosa, which seem to have been selected as examples of the 

 more remarkable tribes, for it is evident he had examined many 

 more, but his observations on them were reserved for another me- 

 moir which, I believe, was never written. % — Reaumur's advocacy of 



* Lamouroux speaks highly of the labours of this naturalist, whose attention 

 seems to have been chiefly^directed to fossil polypidoms and to sponges — Corall. 

 Flex. Introd. p. xvii. See also Hall. Bib. Bot. ii. 341. 



f Examen de quelques productions marines qui ont ete mises au nombre des 

 Plantes, et qui sont l'ouvrage d'une sorte d'Insectes de mer. Par. M. Bernard 

 de Jussieu. 14th Nov. 1742. Published in 1745 — See Hall. Bib. Bot. ii. 281. 



\ That Jussieu had ascertained the animality of the Sertulariadse is, I think, 

 indisputable from the following passage. " II s'en presentoit ensuite quantite 

 de celles qu'on appelle Corallines, les unes pierreuses dans lesquelles je ne re- 

 marquai rien, et les autres dont les tiges et les branches, et ce qui passoit pour 

 feuilles, etoient d'une apparence membraneuse, dans lesquelles je decouvris que 

 ce qu'on y prenoit pour feuilles disposers alternativement, ou dans un sens 



