200 
LECTURE XII. 
lity in the supposed flowers than seemed quite con- 
sistent with the generality of plants. 
A very few years after Count Marsigli’s dis- 
covery affe description of the supposed flowers of 
Coral, Dr. Peysonel, a French physician, from ob- 
servations made on some parts of the European 
coasts, as well as on those of the West Indies, ven- 
tured to propose to the French Academy a new 
theory relative to the nature of Corals ; in which 
he maintained that the supposed flowers were real 
animals, allied to Actiniae, and that, in conse- 
quence, the corals should be considered as aggre- 
gates of animals, either forming, or at least inha- 
biting the calcarious substance of the coral in 
which they appeared. 
To this theory no great attention was paid; 
and several years elapsed before a farther advance 
was made in the knowledge of these bodies : but 
at length, about the year 1730, a Mr. Trembly of 
Geneva, in searching after some small aquatic 
plants, happened to discover the animals now call- 
ed Polypes : these had indeed been discovered long 
before by Leewenhoeck, in Holland ; but he only 
gave a general description of the animal, and ob- 
served that it multiplied by an apparent vegeta- 
