f 45° 1 
into the air. He invariably found it hard, except a t 
its extremities ; where, upon preffing it between the 
nails of the lingers, it furnilhed a fmall quantity of 
a milky fluid, relembling in fome degree the juice 
of fpurge or fow-thiflle. Boccone obferves farther, 
that he faw feveral furrows under the bark of the 
coral, which terminate at the extremities of the 
branches, about which one might clearly fee feveral 
fmall holes of the form of a ftar, which he imagines 
are deftined for the production of branches. Ve- 
nette’s account of coral in his treatile of ftones is much 
the fame as Boccone’s. 
The Count de Mariigli, in a letter to the Abbe Big- 
non, in the year 1 706, takes notice, that, in order to 
give the moll exaCt account of the production of coral, 
he wanted to be allured, whether the milky juice be- 
fore-mentioned was found therein both in winter and 
fummer, which was a matter of difpute even among 
the coral -filhers. For this purpofe he went in winter 
for a few days to fea with the coral-fllhers, and made 
feveral important difcoveries into the nature of coral. 
He fent the Abbe Bignon an account of l'ome branches 
of coral, which he found cover’d with flowers, and 
which was a thing unknown even to the coral-fifhers 
themfelves. Thefe flowers were about a line and a 
half in length, fupported by a white calyx, from 
which proceeded eight rays of the fame colour. Thefe 
were of the fame length, and of the fame diflance 
one from the other, and formed a ftar -like appear- 
ance. Thefe bodies, which the Count de MarflgU 
imagined were flowers, M. Peyflonnel afterwards dil- 
cover’d to be the infeCts inhabiting the coral. As to 
the fad, whether the coral furnilhed a milky juice 
in 
