134 



ally friable and brilliantly colored, so that these kinds of 

 corals often resemble bright colored sea weeds. The curi- 

 ous red coral called Tubipora belongs to this order, and also 

 the singular " Sea Pens" (^Pennatula) and the strange 

 Renilla found on our southern coast, and many other allied 

 forms. 



The red coral used for ornaments, ( Corallium ruhruvi) 

 seems to have been known in very ancient times, but the 

 first naturalist who mentioned it was Theophrates a disciple 

 of Aristotle. By him it was thought to be a mineral sub- 

 stance formed in some unknown manner at the bottom of 

 the sea. Ovid alludes to them as plants that are soft while 

 in the water, but hard when dry. Pliny also considered 

 them as plants, and mentioned several other kind, among 

 them Gorgonia and Antipatlies. From the time of Pliny 

 there was but little advance in the study of corals until the 

 sixteenth century, when they were studied by the leading 

 botanists of that period. Lobel in 1576 gave figures of six 

 species found in the Mediterranean. In 1605 Clusius fig- 

 ured and described among the marine plants, several foreign 

 species of corals. Several other botanists of this period 

 added others to the species already known. The works of 

 Ferrate Imperato published at Naples were very important. 

 E-umphius during a long residence in Amboina, studied the 

 corals of that island and made excellent drawings of them, 

 but his great work (Herbarium Amboinense) was not pub- 

 lished until after his death, in 1705. He had previously, in 

 1684, expressed some doubts in regard to the vegetable na- 

 ture of the corals, and spoke of their relation to Actinias and 

 starfishes, but he gave no proof of their animal nature, and 

 his views passed unnoticed. In the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century the corals were universally considered 

 as plants, and placed among the plants without flowers. 

 The first naturalist who studied corals in the living state, was 

 Boccone, but he failed to perceive their true nature, though 

 he ascertained many important facts. He learned that it 

 was covered when living in the sea with a soft crust, but 

 that the coral itself was hard. He opposed the idea of their 

 vegetable nature but considered them mineral concretions. 

 His work was published in 1671. Marsilli in 1707 an- 

 nounced the discovery oii\\Qfloioers of the coral, but Shaw 

 in 1727 considered the polyps that he had observed on their 

 suiface, as roots. 



