Coral is a carbonate of lime effected by gelatinous marine mollusks known as “polypi.”
For long ages coral was supposed to be a marine plant of which Trevisa wrote in 1495: “Corall is gendred in the Red See, and is a tree as long as it is coveryd with water, but as it is drawen out it torneth into stone,” and Jordan in 1699 tells us that “coral also being a plant and nourished with this juice, turns to a stone.” The name is derived from the Greek word Korallion, and is found written as corale, corral, correil, curalle, curroll, quyral, etc.
The various species have been set down as follows:
Pink Coral
Red Coral
White Coral
Black Coral
Blue Coral
Yellow Coral, etc.
In more modern times species have obtained names from their appearance. Thus: