COR 



insects , and that what appeared to be the 

 flowers of the coral, and which receded 

 into small apertures on its beingwithdrawn 

 from the salt water, were those insects, 

 which, on re-immersion, again protruded 

 themselves. Added to tin's, the softness of 

 ti'e terminations of all the points, and their 

 :!led with a milky fluid, gives just 

 riM-v.m to conclude that nature has not 

 Lieen deficient in providing these insects 

 with both the means of forming their 

 abodes, and with the meansof subsistence. 

 What that subsistence may be, or to what 

 purpose or how the milky fluid is formed, 

 naturalists have not yet discovered. It 

 should seem, that the main channels in the 

 principal branches are gradually formed, 

 and that the lateral ramifications are pro- 

 duced by the expulsion of supernumera- 

 ries in the family, which attach themselves 

 to the exterior and form new galleries. 

 This is the more probable, because pieces 

 of coral, broken off from the main branch- 

 es, in a few days are found to be again ce- 

 mented to such parts as they may happen 

 to light upon. By this we may also infer, 

 that a state of rest is necessary to the ex- 

 istence of the coral insect, and that it has 

 very powerful meansof attaching itself to 

 rocks, &c. Coral is generally found co- 

 vered with a rugged incrustation, and on 

 being left to dry in the sun, soon appears 

 discoloured, and emits a very foetid smell, 

 arising from the corruption of the polypi, 

 or insects, that have died for want of their 

 natural element, and of food. The in- 

 crustation being decoriated, the coral pre- 

 sents itself; mostly of a beautiful blood red 

 colour ; some is white, and a few pieces 

 are black. The latter is much valued, 

 but the red only is used in medicine as an 

 astringent. Vegetable distilled oils dis- 

 solve coral ; the red kind yields, by dis- 

 tillation in a retort, a volatile vitreous 

 spirit that effervesces with acids, turns 

 syrup of violets green, and causes the so- 

 lution of coiTosive sublimate to assume a 

 milky appearance. Calcined in a gentle 

 heat it becomes white, and it imparts to 

 ill the menstrua a red colour, which itself 

 gradually loses. The white coral is little 

 valued, and is generally made into lime of 

 the finest quality, where it grows in abun- 

 dance between high and low water mark. 

 Fisheries for red and black coral are esta- 

 bl.shed in many parts of the world, princi- 

 pally in the Levant, in the Red Sea, Peru- 

 vian Gulf, Chinese Seas, and among many 

 of the numerous clusters of islands in the 

 Eastern and Pacific Oceans. The largest, 

 brightest, and heaviest, is accounted the 



COR 



best. The women of Asia wear neck- 

 laces and bract- lets, made of one or more 

 rows of red coral ; there called moongah. 

 Although obtained in their own quarter of 

 the world, the beads are very dear ; those 

 of about the size of a large marrow -fat 

 pea being usually sold for four or five ru- 

 pees per tolah of half an ounce ; which is 

 equal to sixteen or twenty pounds sterling 

 for a pound avoirdupois. The natives of 

 Hindostan have a mode of imitating coral 

 by means of the butts of large conch-shells, 

 which they colour very artfully. Coral is 

 sometimes found in a fossil state, but in- 

 variably of a white or yellowish colorr ; 

 these, from some remaining red spots in 

 their interior, appear to have been for- 

 merly entirely of that colour, but to have 

 lost it by absorption, or by the action of 

 acids : and the colour of coral is by no 

 means fixed : if a pound of red coral (the 

 isis nobilis of Linnaeus) be boiled in a 

 strong syrup, in which a pound of wax is 

 mixed, both being previously dissolved in 

 spirits of wine, the whole colouring mat- 

 ter of the coral may be extracted. Artifi- 

 cial coral is made of levigated cinnabar or 

 of minium ; but these are easily detected: 

 they will not effervesce with acids, nor 

 do they afford an alkaline earth, as real 

 coral invariably does. 



CORALLINA, Coralline, in natural 

 history? a genus of the Venues Zoophy- 

 ta: Animal growing in the form of a 

 plant ; stem fixed, with calcareous sub- 

 divided branches, mostly jointed. C. 

 officinalis is common on almost every 

 shore, growing in clustered tufts from 

 two to five inches long, about the thick- 

 ness of a large thread ; white, greenish, 

 yellowish, purple, or reddish, and fre- 

 quently a mixture of all the colours. 

 This is the species sometimes used in 

 powder as an absorbent and vermifuge. 

 C. flabellum inhabits the West Indies, of 

 various colours, from a greenish-brown 

 to njilk-white ; sometimes of a flat kid- 

 ney-shaped form, and about an inch high ; 

 sometimes expanding to a large subdivid- 

 ed lobed and undulated mass, from one 

 to five inches high, and as many broad : 

 stem terminated by a tuft of tine radical 

 tubes. 



CORCHORUS, in botany, a genus of 

 the Polyandria Monogynia class and or- 

 der. Natur sA order of Columniferae. Tilia- 

 cese, Jussieu. Essential character : co- 

 rolla five-petalled ; calyx five-leaved, de- 

 ciduous ; capsule many valved, many 

 seeded. There are sixteen species. Na- 

 tives of both Indies. 



