(6158) 
Jn. Account of feme of the 'Natural things^ with which the Intel- 
ligent andlPtquifitive Signor Vmlo Boccone, of Sicily, hath 
lately prefented the Royal Socifityj and enriched their Repofi- 
Mongft the many curiofitiesj oiakiog up this handfom 
Pf cfentj we ftiall here particularly take notice of theie 
followiog: 
I. Of theun-commoD pieces of red and white; of 
both which foineare ramified in fblid mafly bodies 5 others 
(the rarer fort,) are Corallin incruftations upon truly wood- 
den and branehv ftscksjand do terminate in fraall and tender 
Goraliio buttons or flowers 5 infome of which the Prefeater 
affirm'd to have, upon fquecziog them/ound a lacfeom Juice. 
Himfelf having been prefent at the Coral- fifliing ia theChan- 
nel of Mejjina^ which feparates €alahria from S icily ^xtldHts in 
a letter of his, written on that fubjeft to Signor Marchetti^ 
Profeflbrof the Mathematiquesat Fifa^ thai, before the Co'- 
rai-fifliers drew their nets out of the water, he immerfed 
his hand and arm ioto the Sea to feel, whether the Goral was 
foft under the water before it was drawn up into the air, and 
found it altogether hard, except the round end, above-men- 
tioned under the name of button ; which having been bruifed 
with his nails, he found it made up of five or (tK little cells, 
full of a white and fomewhat inucilaginous liquorjrefembling 
that milky Juice^ found in Summer in the long cods of the 
htih^ cM'd Flmia/t^ pijianafolik denticnlalif^ fpoken of by 
Joh.Bauhinm^ This Gorallin juice he calls L^z/e^n, becaule 
having tafted it himfelf, as well as the Mariners did, they 
alwaysfoun4i£ of aijiarpand adftriogeot tafte, in fuch pie-- 
ces as came recently out of the Sea ; thofe that are dried 
locfiog that part of the tafte which is acrimonious, and re- 
taining only thar which is adftringent : Which change of 
rafte he affirms to be made in about fix hours after the Goral 
■hath been drawn up5 10 which, time alfo the faid LeveUj that 
isiqclofed io the pores^ is dried, and hath changed its co- 
lour. He inclioes ftrongly to the opinion of thofe who con- 
ceivejthat theloog concodion of the ferment fixes the partij 
and produces the red colour^ efpecially being near to the 
hard coral,aod the red vermillioD,whi,ch furrounds ir»- 
'his 
