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BOOK IV
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81
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partly because it is arborescent. Because of its arborescent form, it has also been called dendrites. Actually
the coral itself can be seen as a soft green bush growing under the
sea. It has berries which are similar in appearance and size to those
of the cornel tree. They are soft and white and when left in the air
they soon harden as cleverly described by Ovid,
"In this way coral, when first it touches air, In time it hardens, soft was the plant under the waves."
Since it begins to harden as soon as it is exposed to the air it has been named gorgonia. The poets picture the Gorgones as turning people into stone. Pliny writes thus concerning gems, "gorgonia is
nothing other than coral, the reason for the name being because it is
changed into the hardness of stone." The Persians, according to Pliny,
call it jaces. Coral is not of one color nor are the other
stones of this genus that have congealed within the earth from a juice.
If the juice was red the coral is red; if reddish, reddish; if white,
white; if black, black; and if greenish, greenish.However, as I have
said previously, all coral before it is torn away with nets or broken
off with pieces of iron is green. When a single stone forms from juices
of different colors it has several colors and for this reason the stalk
and branches of a single coral may be red, white, black and other
colors, Black coral has been named antipathes by some, according to Dioscorides and by others isidis plocamos, according
to Juba. Coral has a moderately astringent taste and an odor very
similar to algae. Some is hard, such as that from Gaul, some soft such
as that from Terra di Lavoro, while that from Erythra is even softer.
All coral will break when it falls. Some is solid, some tube-like, some
scaly, some with many branches and some with only a few.
Coral
occurs in many places. It is found around the Orkneys north of the
British Isles, in the Hetruscus Gulf near Gravisca, at Terra di Lavoro
near Naples, in Sicily near Helia and Trapani, in Africa near Erythra,
in the Persian Gulf. Black coral occurs in the Red Sea around the
islands of the Troglodytae.
We
wear the perforated berries of coral as ornaments and use them in
calculating prices as do the Indians. Pliny writes that the Indian
prophets and priests, being especially superstituous, believe that when
they are worn as an amulet they have the power to ward off danger and
hence the people take a decorous and religious pleasure in wearing
them. Unless it is a coral berry I do not know what the mineral might
be that Pliny calls a gem nor whom he has followed when he writes that
it has the appearance of a cherry. The common people believe that if
young sprouts of coral are worn suspended from the neck they will
protect infants and children from being bewitched. The people of Gaul
decorate their swords, shields and helmets with it. As a remedy it
dries and cools and is astringent. For that reason, having been drunk
in water, it stops the coughing of blood and cures severe cases of
colic. Physicians select
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