NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 159 



lembles a fmall funnel, and its fides form a beautiful web like 

 the finerr. flligrin work, of a ftraw-colour. 



10. Of the fame colour as the former, flat, with feveral pretty Fi s- G ' 

 indented fhoots, about a finger in length, and half as broad, but 

 appears to have been much larger before it was detached from 

 the body of the plant; which, when entire, muft make a very 

 beautiful appearance. 



In Nordland are fometimes found coral plants or (hoots, of Some other 



i • i -1*1111 1 kinds. 



which one lide is red and the other white, but, having never feen 

 any, I cannot warrant the certainty of it; but I have a brown 

 ftone of the bignefs of two flfts, incruftated with coralline fub- 

 ftances, the external colour of which is carnation; but within it 

 is of the whitenefs of fnow; it confifts of fome hundreds of great 

 and fmall round bofTes or buds clofe to each other, and forming 

 an agreeable figure. Very probably thefe would have been big- 

 ger had they remained longer in the water. This piece I account 

 a Madrepora abrotanoides tuberculis horizontaliter pofitis, and in 

 a collection of the naturalia of Norway, I have fmce feen larger 

 and taller plants of this nature. 



The flihermen often fell coral bufhes to the apothecaries at 

 Bergen, and, upon being afked, what is their opinion about the 

 origin and growth of this marine vegetable*; they anfwer, that 

 fometimes a white drop is obferved to fall from the branches of 

 the old coral, as well as from the fea-trees, as if it were milk or 

 feed, and where this falls a vegetable is produced according to its 

 fpecies. This account is in fome meafure, confirmed by this, 

 that the vegetable, number feven, has under it a white and flat 

 macula like a root, fpreading to the extent of the plant. The 

 fame likewife is further attefted by Tavernier, in his travels to In- 

 dia, where he fpeaks of the coral-fifheries in the Mediterranean, 

 but he is miftaken, in imagining that not the leaft fprig of it was 

 to be found in the whole ocean, our northern coafts manifefting 

 the contrary: As to its medical ufes it has the characler of being 

 abforbent, refrigirative, emollient, aftringent, and lengthening, 

 which may be true, when the tinclure of it, conflicting of the ex- 

 traded falts or oil, is adminiftred inwardly; but, that the little 

 beads, made of the coral (they not being as fome imagine, fruits 

 or little berries growing thereon,) are endued with any fuch fm- 



Part L T \ gular 



