4G6 CORAL IN THE OLD TIME. 



morning," he writes, " I found my coral-sprays completely 

 covered with white flowers, each about a line and a half 

 in length, supported on a white 

 calyx, from which eight rays of 

 the same colour issued, these rays 

 being of equal length, and equi- 

 distant, and the whole forming a 

 very beautiful star, resembling in 

 colour and nearly in size the clove- 

 pink." He adds that this dis- 

 covery procured him a reputation 



CORAL POLYPE. . . -, , ., ,, 



suspiciously like that of a magi- 

 cian, in his neighbourhood ; no one, not even the fishers, 

 ever having seen anything resembling this supposed 

 efflorescence. 



This incident occurred early in the eighteenth century. 

 In 1725 a French physician, named Peysonnel, announced 

 to the scientific world that the little stars described by 

 Marsigli, and mistaken by him for flowers, were really 

 and truly animals, identical in organization with those 

 which were then called " sea- nettles," but are now known 

 as " actinias " and " sea-anemones." This conclusion, 

 though at first disputed, is now accepted by all zoolo- 

 gists ; the coral is a polype, with polypids. It has since 

 been investigated and confirmed by Darwin, Dana, and 

 Lacaze-Deuthiers. 



The word coral comes from the Greek, and signifies a 

 "sea-ornament." The appellation is a proof of the higli 

 value set upon the substance by the ancient Greeks. It 

 was celebrated by Orpheus in his " Hymns;" Ovid alludes 

 to it in his " Metamorphoses." It was supposed to be 

 gifted with valuable medicinal properties, and mysterious 



