CORALLINES. 
L‘i9 
distinct animal. “ What can be more remarkable,” be adds, “ than to 
s ee a plant-like body producing an egg, capable of swimming about 
a nd choosing a proper place to adhere to, where it sprouts out into 
branches, each crowded with innumerable distinct animals, often of 
complicated organization !— the branches, moreover, sometimes pos- 
sessing organs capable of movement independent of the polypi.” 
Passing to the coral fishing, it may be said to bo quite special, 
presenting no analogy with any other fishing in the European seas, if we 
except the sponge fisheries. The fishing stations which occur are found 
°R the Italian coast and the coast of Barbary ; in short, in most parts of 
the Mediterranean basin. In all these regions, on abrupt rocky beds, 
certain aquatic forests occur, composed entirely of the red coral, the most 
brilliant and the most celebrated of all the polypiers, CoraUum decus 
Kquidi ! During many ages, as we have seen, the coral was supposed 
to be a plant. The ancient Greeks called it the daughter oj the sea 
(KopdWiov Kopg «Xo<?), which the Latins translated into eorralium or 
coTcdium. It is now agreed among naturalists that the coral is con- 
structed by a family of polypi living together, and composing a poly- 
I'ier. It abounds in the Mediterranean and the Bed Sea, where it is 
found at various depths, but rarely less than five fathoms, or more 
than a hundred and fifty. Each polypier resembles a pretty red leaf- 
less under-shrub bearing delicate little star-like radiating white flowers. 
The axes of this little tree are the parts common to the association ; 
fhe flowrets are the polypes. These axes present a soft reticulated 
crust, full of little cavities, which are the cells ot the polypi, and 
are permeated by a milky juice. Beneath the crust is the coral, pro- 
P er ly so called, which equals marble in hardness, and is remarkable 
for its striped surface, its bright red colour, and the fine polish of which 
h is susceptible. The ancients believed that it was soft in the water, 
a ud only took its consistence when exposed to the air : 
“ Sic et coialinm, quo primum coutigit auras 
Tempore, durescit.” Ovid. 
The fishing is chiefly conducted by sailors from Genoa, Leghorn, 
an d Naples, and it is so fatiguing, that it is a common saying in Italy 
fhat a sailor obliged to go to the coral fishery should be a thief or an 
assassin. The saving is a gratuitous insuit to the sailor, hut conveys 
a good idea enough of the occupation. 
