which has never been published, Peyssonel writes:--

"Je fis fleurir le corail dans des vases pleins d'eau de mer,
et j'observai que ce que nous croyons être la fleur de cette
prétendue plante n'était au vrai, qu'un insecte semblable à
une petite Ortie ou Poulpe. J'avais le plaisir de voir remuer
les pattes, ou pieds, de cette Ortie, et ayant mis le vase
plein d'eau où le corail était à une douce chaleur auprès
du feu, tous les petites insectes s'épanouirent ... L'Ortie
sortie étend les pieds, et forme ce que M. de Marsigli et moi
avions pris pour les pétales de la fleur. Le calice de cette
prétendue fleur est le corps même de l'animal avancé et sorti
hors de la cellule."[1]

[Footnote 1: This extract from Peysonnel's manuscript is given by
M. Lacaze Duthiers in his valuable "Histoire Naturelle du Corail"
(1866).]

The comparison of the flowers of the coral to a "petite ortie" or
"little nettle" is perfectly just, but needs explanation. "Ortie de
mer," or "sea-nettle," is, in fact, the French appellation for our
"sea-anemone," a creature with which everybody, since the great
aquarium mania, must have become familiar, even to the limits of
boredom. In 1710, the great naturalist, Réaumur, had written a memoir
for the express purpose of demonstrating that these "orties" are
animals; and with this important paper Peyssonel must necessarily have
been familiar. Therefore, when he declared the "flowers" of the red
coral to be little "orties," it was the same thing as saying that
they were animals of the same general nature as sea-anemones. But
to Peyssonel's contemporaries this was an extremely startling