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"Alcyon, dit Lycoperdites," detail of plate 2 in Louis Bourget, Traité des pétrifications (Paris, 1778) / Bibliothek Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich / https://www.e-pics.ethz.ch/index/ETHBIB.AD/ETHBIB.AD-v1.0_8608.htmlIMAGE INFORMATION

Alcyon dit Lycoperdites
Trans.: Alcyon called Lycoperdites

Object Status:

Unlocated

Accession Date:

October 1766

Primary Source Reference:

"Catalogue raisonné des morceaux d'Histoire Naturelle que j'ai l'honneur d'envoyer ci-joint à Monsieur du Simitierre," Du Simitière Scraps, Library Company of Philadelphia, no. 50, p. 1

Additional Source Text:

"Ce sont des Madrépores petrifiés ainsi que les Suivants."

Trans.: These madrepores are petrified like those following [i.e., two more examples]==

Notes:

Lycoperdites are fossil puffballs (Gasteromycetes).

The donor was a man named Frey, of Basel, Switzerland. He may have met Du Simitière during miltary campaigns in Flanders. The men corresponded and exchanged natural history specimens in 1765 and 1766. Frey's covering letter for his shipment of fifty fossils and other natural history specimens was dated at Basel, 1 Oct 1766. Du Simitière Papers, Library Company of Philadelphia.