not until actual investigation
on the spot, as to what the Coral was, that the truth came out.

It was then discovered to be an animal and not a plant, and that during
life its hard limy skeleton was covered by soft muscular tissue, which,
when decomposing, was readily washed away by the sea, leaving the hard
interior exposed as coral.

When the absurd beliefs are read which found credence among all classes
of the people during the middle ages, and down even to the end of the
seventeenth century, as to what the cotton boll or pod was, the reader
is inclined to rub his eyes and think surely he must be reading "Baron
Munchausen" over again, for a nearer approach to the wonderful
statements of that former-fabled traveller it would be difficult to find
than the simple crude conceptions which prevailed of the growth, habits,
and physical characteristics of the Cotton plant.

The subject of the early myths and fables of the plant in question has
been very fully treated by the late Mr. Henry Lee, F. L. S., who was for
a time at the Brighton Aquarium. His book, the "Vegetable Lamb of
Tartary," shows indefatigable research for a correct explanation of the
myth, and after a strictly impartial inquiry he comes to the conclusion
that all the various phases which these fabulous concoctions assumed,
had their beginnings in nothing more or less than the simple mature pod
of the Cotton plant.

It will not be necessary to consider here more than one or two of these
very curious beliefs about cotton. By some it was supposed that in a
country which went by the name "The Tartars of the East," there grew a
wonderful tree which yielded buds still more wonderful. These, when
ripe, were said to burst and expose to view tiny lambs whose fleeces
gave a pure white wool which the natives made into different garments.

By and by, a delightfully curious change took place, and it is found
that the fruit which was formerly said to have the little lamb within,
was now changed into a live lamb attached to the top of the plant. Mr.
Lee says: "The stem or stalk on which the lamb was suspended above the
ground, was sufficiently flexible to allow the animal to bend downward,
and browse on the herbage within its reach. When all the grass within
the length of its tether had been consumed, the stem withered and the
plant died. This plant lamb was reported to have bones, blood, and
delicate flesh, and to be a favourite food of wolves, though no other
carn