CORAL FISHERY, 369 
entangled by the net. There is also a legendary tale of an 
enchanted coral-tree, large and powerful as an oak, which is 
said to grow in a deep grotto at the foot of Mont Alban, on 
the Ligurian coast. It extends its arms when no danger is 
nigh, but immediately withdraws them, like a cuttle-fish, at the 
approach of an insidious enemy. This superstition is so firmly 
. V 
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PS 
Isis hippuris. 
rooted that, while Professor Vogt was at Villafranca in 1865, a 
“coralline” arrived from Torre del Greco for the purpose of 
fishing for this imaginary prey. The “padrone” swore he 
would not leave the neighbourhood before he had secured his 
prize, hoping to enrich himself with the spoils, but doomed, no’ 
doubt, to a grievous disappointment, and a considerable loss, on 
a coast where but few ordinary corals are found. 
In the elegant Isis hippuris, which grows in the Indian Ocean, 
