† 1. A name formerly given to the red or other branched coral, when it was believed to be of vegetable nature. Obs.
1635. Davenant, Madagascar, Wks. (1673), 212. VVhilst with their long retentive breath they strive To root up Corall-Trees, where Mermaids lie.
1670–98. Lassels, Voy. Italy, Pref. 6. Indeed the Coral-tree is neither hard nor red, till taken out of the sea.
2. The popular name of the trees of the genus Erythrina, which are distributed throughout the tropical regions of both hemispheres.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 288. The Coral or Red Bean Tree.
1775. Masson, in Phil. Trans., LXVI. 296. We found here … the coral tree, Erethrina corallodendron.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon, I. I. iii. 92. One of the most magnificent of the flowering trees, is the Coral tree…. It derives its English name from the resemblance which its scarlet flowers present to red coral.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 323. The coral tree—the flower of which exactly resembles a spray of real coral.
