[ 447 ] 
For the difficulties, which there are, in getting from 
the bottom of the tea its productions, and the few 
opportunities, which occur, of making the neceffiary 
obfervations upon fea-plants, have been the caufe, 
that this pait of botany has been hitherto very imper- 
fect ; and that the antients have been ignorant of 
the organifation and ftruCture of thefe plants, of which 
they were acquainted but with a very fmall quantity, 
although the different fpecies are exceedingly nume- 
rous. 
M. Peyffionnel, difpofed from his youth to the 
ftudy of natural hiftory, after having qualified him- 
felf for the practice of medicine, applied him I elf 
with great diligence to that fcience, to which his in- 
clinations fo ftrongly prompted him ; and being a 
native of, and refiding at Marfeilles, he had the oppor- 
tunity of examining the curiofities of the fea, which 
the fifhermen, more efpecially thofe who fearch for 
coral, furnifhed him with. Thefe confiderations 
engaged him to endeavour to illuftrate this obfcure 
part of natural hiftory, which he was more particu- 
larly enabled to do, as he could examine the produc- 
tions of the fea the moment they were taken out of 
the water, or even in the fea itfelf, when thefe bodies 
are in their natural ftate : for mofl of thofe naturalifts, 
who have treated of them already, have not examined 
them, but when they have been disfigured by the 
air, and have changed their true ftate by being dried. 
Befides, that tranquillity of mind, which a juft ob~ 
ferver ffiould be always in pofteffion of,’ is frequently 
difturbed in thofe little flight boats ufed by the coral- 
fifhers. Thefe, as well as feveral other difficulties, 
have been the caufe, why we have fo little knowlege 
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