VOL. XLVII.j PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 259 



tion of branches. Venette's account of coral in his treatise of stones is much the 

 same as Boccone's. 



The Count de Marsigli, in a letter to the Ahhi Bignon, in the year 1706, 

 takes notice that, in order to give the most exact account of the production of 

 coral, he wanted to be assured, whether the milky juice before mentioned was 

 found there both in winter and summer, which was a matter of dispute even 

 among the coral-fishers. For this purpose he went in winter for a few days to 

 sea with the coral-fishers, and made several important discoveries in the nature 

 of coral. He sent the Abbe Bignon an account of some branches of coral, which 

 he found covered with flowers, and which was a thing unknown even to the 

 coral-fishers themselves. These flowers were about a line and a half in length, 

 supported by a white calyx, from which proceeded 8 rays of the same colour. 

 These were of the same length, and of the same distance one from the other, 

 and formed a star-like appearance. These bodies, which the Count de Marsigli 

 imagined were flowers, M. Peyssonnel afterwards discovered to be the insects in- 

 habiting the coral. As to the fact, whether the coral furnished a milky juice in 

 winter as well as in summer. Count de Marsigli observed, that in December he 

 found the milky juice between the bark of coral and its substance, in the same 

 manner as he did in the month of June preceding. 



M. de Peyssonnel was unwilling that the idea, which the ingenious discovery of 

 the Count de Marsigli had given, in regard to the flowers of coral, should be 

 lost; and therefore, being at Marseilles in the year 1723, he went to sea with 

 the coral-fishers. Being well apprised of what Marsigli had observed, and the 

 manner of his making these observations, as soon as the net, with which they 

 bring up the coral, was near the level of the water, he plunged a glass vessel in 

 it, into which he conveyed some branches of coral. Some hours after, he ob- 

 served that there appeared a number of white points on every side of this 

 bark. These points answered to the holes, which pierced the bark and 

 formed a circumscribed figure with yellow and white rays, the centre of 

 which appeared hollow, but afterwards expanded itself, and exhibited seve- 

 ral rays resembling the flower of the olive-tree ; and these are the flowers of 

 coral described by Marsigli. Having taken this coral out of the water the 

 flowers entered into the bark, and disappeareil ; but being again put into the 

 water, some hours after they were perceptible again. He thought them not so 

 large as the Count de Marsigli mentions, scarcely exceeding in diameter a large 

 pin's head. They were soft, and their petals disappeared when they were touched 

 in the water, forming irregular figures. Having put some of these flowers on 

 white paper, they lost their transparency, and became red as they dried. He 

 observed, that these flowers grew from the branches in every direction, from 

 broken ones, as well as from those which were whole ; but their number lessened 



L L 2 



