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There is no doubt that marine plants at the time of growth are soft,
and therefore, like terrestrial plants in the nature of their growth. When they harden and petrify, they become akin to minerals because of the petrification of their bodies. I have seen many a body, besides bussad, which must have been soft before petrification. For example, marine crabs, having been taken out of the sea, become petrified. As for the sponge, it is also like minerals and, like minerals, lies at one place. It is very much like plants as far as its growth is concerned. In fact, it may be said that it is like animals, because it is said that it contracts on touching when it is attached to its stone. We cannot say this about the nacreous shell, since it is an animal, as it walks in the depth of the ocean, touches things, and eats. It is, however, because of its shell, like minerals, but the shell is its guard, just as the shell of the snail guards it and lies wrapped round it, although the snail crawls. Or take the case of the tortoise which is safe within its caraface. The same is true of the scales of the gavials. We have seen many other animals which are shielded by lithic coverings, but they cannot be said to resemble minerals. The author of the Lapidary says that the marjan is the essence and
the bussad is its derivative. This is according to the statement that marjan and bussad are one and the same thing except for the fact that marjan is a slender perforated root and bussad is its branch like that of a tree in the sea. This root actually comprises slender pipes enclosed in a shell through
which even a needle cannot pass. There are several layers of the same kind upon it, and, instead of cutting these hollows, join and support them. They are like the knots of the phragmites plant. All of them are reddish like bussad and do not bear different shapes either. Hamzah writes (about the origin of the word, bussad): "This word was, in reality, wusad which has been Arabicised to bussad. " There is another variety of bussad. It is called khurnhak which has been transmogrified to khurahak in Arabic. The root of the bussad is so called when compared to the comb of the cock. Shrivelled and broad anemones are, in the same way, called khul Khuruh (i.e. a small cock, or small birds — murghan). Therefore, I tend to believe that the word, marjan, is the Arabic
version of the Persian murghan, as these words are nearer each other. Abu Zayd Arrajani says: ''Bussad actually comprises stone pieces
having slender and broad boughs." But we have not seen this stone: all we have seen are these slender pipes which people call the root of the bussad. Al-Kindi writes:
Vinegar renders bussad white, whereas oil makes it lustrous. The big
bussad having several boughs and weighing a mithqal fetches a price
of half to one dinar, while the slender kind weighing a mann 105 is
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