6. That _Coral_ (which is a _Lithophyton_ or stone-plant, and groweth at the bottom of the Sea) is soft under Water, but waxeth hard in the air, although the assertion of _Dioscorides_, _Pliny_, and consequently _Solinus_, _Isidore_, _Rueus_, and many others, and stands believed by most, we have some reason to doubt, especially if we conceive with common Believers, a total softness at the bottom, and this induration to be singly made by the air, not only from so sudden a petrifaction and strange induration, not easily made out from the qualities of air, but because we find it rejected by experimental enquiries. _Johannes Beguinus_ [SN: _In the French Copy._] in his Chapter of the tincture of _Coral_ undertakes to clear the World of this Error, from the express experiment of _John Baptista de Nicole_, who was Overseer of the gathering of _Coral_ upon the Kingdom of _Thunis_. This Gentleman, saith he, desirous to find the nature of _Coral_, and to be resolved how it groweth at the bottom of the Sea, caused a man to go down no less then a hundred fathom, with express to take notice whether it were hard or soft in the place where it groweth. Who returning, brought in each hand a branch of _Coral_, affirming it was as hard at the bottom, as in the air where he delivered it. The same was also confirmed by a trial of his own, handling it a fathom under water before it felt the air. _Boetius_ in his Tract _De Gemmis_, is of the same opinion, not ascribing its concretion unto the air, but the coagulating spirits of Salt, and lapidifical juice of the Sea, which entring the parts of that Plant, overcomes its vegetability, and converts it into a lapideous substance. And this, saith he, doth happen when the Plant is ready to decay; for all _Coral_ is not hard, and in many concreted Plants some parts remain unpetrified, that is the quick and livelier parts remain as Wood, and were never yet converted. Now that Plants and ligneous bodies may indurate under Water without approachment of air, we have experiment in _Coralline_, with many Coralloidal concretions; and that little stony Plant which Mr. _Johnson_ nameth, _Hippuris coralloides_, and _Gesner_, _foliis mansu Arenosis_, we have found in fresh water, which is the less concretive portion of that Element. We have also with us the visible petrification of Wood in many waters, whereof so much as is covered with water converteth into stone; as much as is above it and in the air, retaineth the form of Wood, and continueth as before. [Sidenote: Gans _Histor. Coral._]