CORALLINA:. 227 
‘Réaumur and Bernard de Jussiew finally recognised the value of the 
‘discoveries and the validity of the reasoning of the naturalist of 
Marseilles. When these illustrious savan¢s became acquainted with 
the experiments’ of Trembley upon the fresh-water Hydra ; when 
they had. themselves repeated them ; when they had made similar 
observations on the sea anemone and alcyonium; when they finally 
discovered that on other so-called marine plants animals were found 
similar to the hydra, so admirably described by Trembley; they no 
longer hesitated to render full justice to the views of their former 
adversary. 
While Peyssonnel still lived forgotten at the Antilles, his scientific 
labours were crowned with triumph at Paris; but it was a sterile 
triumph for him. _Réaumur first gave to the animals which construct 
the coral the name of Polyps, and Coral to the product itself, which 
he at once recognised as the architectural product of the polyps. In 
other words, Réaumur introduced. to the world of Science the very 
views which he had keenly contested with their author, and gave them 
a nomenclature that still endures. But from that time the animal 
nature of the precious coral has never been doubted. 
Without pausing to note the various authors who have given their 
attention to the structure of this fine natural production, we shall at 
once direct ours to the organisation of the animals and the construction 
of the coral, as described by M. Duthiers. 
M. Lacaze-Duthiers, one of the Professors at the Jardin des 
Plantes, of Paris, published in 1864 a remarkable monograph, entitled 
“ L’ Histoire Naturelle du Corail.” This learned naturalist was charged 
by the French Government, in 1860, with a mission having for its 
object the study of the coral from its natural history point of view. 
His observations upon it are numerous and precise, and worthy of 
the successor of Peyssonnel. 
A branch of Ziving coral, if we may use the term, is an aggrega- 
tion of animals derived from a first being by budding. They are 
united among themselves by a common tissue, each seeming to enjoy 
a life of its own, though participating in a common object. The 
branch owes its origin to an egg, which produces a young animal, 
which attaches itself soon after its birth, and from this is derived the 
new beings which, by their united labours, produce the branch of 
coral or polypidom. Ai 
This branch is composed of two distinct parts: the one central, 
of a hard, brittle, and stony nature, the well-known coral of com- 
merce ; the other external, like the bark of a tree, soft and fleshy, 
and easily impressed with the nail. This is essentially the layer of 
P 2 
