[ad. It. (and mod.L.) corallīna, dim. of corallo CORAL.] A name given originally to organisms thought to resemble or be of the nature of coral, but of more minute size, less firm texture, etc.
Prob. first given to the calcareous sea-weed Corallina officinalis (sense 1 below); but also including the compound animal organisms of plant-like habit growing in the sea, then thought to be plants. When the animal nature of coral was recognized, the corallines (including Corallina) were transferred to the animal kingdom. More accurate knowledge has since separated senses 1 and 2. The animal ‘corallines’ have moreover been found to belong to entirely distinct zoological divisions, some of them (Polyzoa) being Cœlomata, others (Hydrozoa) being Cælenterata; hence the name is no longer a term of Zoology, though retained in popular use, as in ‘a collection of sea-weeds and corallines.’
1. A genus of seaweeds having a calcareous jointed stem, one species of which (Corallina officinalis) is common on the coasts of the North Atlantic; ‘a plant having the power of secreting lime like the coral animals’ (Dana).
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg. (1586), 436. Coraline, corolina, is thought to be Brion, which is mosse growing to stones in the sea, and killeth the worms of young children.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. v. § 6. 91. That plants and ligneous bodies may indurate under water … we have experiment in Coralline.
1857. J. G. Wood, Com. Obj. Sea Shore, iv. 56. Of these plants the coralline is a good example; for until a comparatively late period, it was placed among the animals in company with the true corals.
1880. Carpenter, in 19th Cent., No. 38. 615. I dredged slow-growing red calcareous Algæ (true corallines) in the Mediterranean.
b. As an ingredient in the Pharmacopœia.
1543. [see 1].
1634. Brereton, Trav. (1844), 47. He prescribed six grains of corallin.
1707. G. Miége, St. Gt. Brit., II. 17. Coraline is also … strengthning, and good in hot Gouts.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 407. Will kill them [worms], as Steel, Hartshorn, Coraline.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Corallina officinalis, White worm-seed, sea moss, or coralline; formerly given to children as anthelminthic.
2. A name applied to plant-like compound animals with a calcareous or horny cœnœcium; esp. to the Polyzoa or Bryozoa, and the Sertularian Hydrozoa. In this sense, formerly in scientific, but now only in popular use.
1721. R. Bradley, Wks. Nat., 15. I commonly find them accompanied with Coralines, the Sea-Fan, and other such like Bodies.
1767. Ellis, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 421. By a Coralline I mean an animal growing in the form of a plant.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 4. Not being aware of the true nature of those half-animated beings called Corals and Corallines.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., xiv. (1872), 387. A delicate branching coralline, studded with polypi.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., viii. 453. The Polyzoa or Bryozoa: in outward form these animals bear a general likeness to the Sertularian Hydrozoa, with which they were formerly confounded under the name of ‘Corallines.’
† 3. Mountain Coralline, Coralline Moss: old names for the Reindeer Lichen, from its resemblance to Corallina. Obs.
1598. Florio, Corallina … also Corall or mountain coralline.
1674. Phil. Trans., IX. 240. Our Horse and Sheep make a shift to live upon the grass under the snow, and the Corallin-mosse call’d Muscus Marinus.
1756. Watson, in Phil. Trans., XLIX. 859. The common coralline moss is the principal food of the Rein-Deer, in winter.
4. attrib. a. Coralline Crag (Geol.): the lowest member of the ‘Crag’ or Pliocene series of Norfolk and Suffolk, consisting of shells and ‘corallines’ (Polyzoa) imbedded in calcareous sand.
1835. E. Charlesworth, in Phil. Mag., Ser. III. VII. 83. I propose to designate the lower [beds] as the Coralline Crag.
1851. Richardson, Geol. (1855), 358. The coralline crag was partially consolidated before the deposition of the red crag.
1874. [see CORALLOID a.].
b. Coralline-Snake.
1802. G. Shaw, Zool., III. 432. Coralline Snake, Coluber Corallinus … scales … on the body … disposed in longitudinal rays or stripes, representing, in some degree, the articulations of Coralline.
c. Coralline zone: the third of the zones or strata into which Milne Edwards and Forbes divided the sea-depths, being that in which corallines (sense 2) abound.
1876. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., iii. 76. The Coralline [zone] extends from 90 to about 300 feet in depth.
