Now though in a middle way we may concede, that some are soft and others hard; yet whether all _Coral_ were first a woody substance, and afterward converted; or rather some thereof were never such, but from the sprouting spirit of Salt, were able even in their stony natures to ramifie and send forth branches; as is observable in some stones, in silver and metallick bodies, is not without some question. And such at least might some of those be, which _Fiaroumti_ observed to grow upon Bricks at the bottom of the Sea, upon the coast of _Barbaric_. [Sidenote: _Of what matter the_ China _dishes be made_.] 7. We are not throughly resolved concerning _Porcellane_ or _China_ dishes, that according to common belief they are made of Earth, which lieth in preparation about an hundred years under ground; for the relations thereof are not onely divers, but contrary, and Authors agree not herein. _Guido Pancirollus_ will have them made of Egg-shells, Lobster-shells, and _Gypsum_ laid up in the Earth the space of 80 years: of the same affirmation is _Scaliger_, and the common opinion of most. _Ramuzius_ in his Navigations is of a contrary assertion, that they are made out of Earth, not laid under ground, but hardned in the Sun and Wind, the space of forty years. But _Gonzales de Mendoza_, a man imployed into _China_ from _Philip_ the second King of _Spain_, upon enquiry and ocular experience, delivered a way different from all these. For inquiring into the artifice thereof, he found they were made of a Chalky Earth; which beaten and steeped in water, affordeth a cream or fatness on the top, and a gross subsidence at the bottom; out of the cream or superfluitance, the finest dishes, saith he, are made, out of the residence thereof the courser; which being formed, they gild or paint, and not after an hundred years, but presently commit unto the furnace. This, saith he, is known by experience, and more probable then what _Odoardus Barbosa_ hath delivered, that they are made of shells, and buried under earth an hundred years. And answerable in all points hereto, is the relation of _Linschotten_, a diligent enquirer, in his Oriental Navigations. Later confirmation may be had from _Alvarez_ the Jesuit, who lived long in those parts, in his relations of _China_. That _Porcellane_ Vessels were made but in one Town of the Province of _Chiamsi_: That the earth was brought out of other Provinces, but for the advantage of water, which makes them more polite and perspicuous, they were only made in this. That they were wrought and fashioned like those of other Countries, whereof some were tincted blew, some red, others yellow, of which colour only they presented unto the King.