This rather fanciful but still recognizable illustration of a coral comes from the famous Vienna Dioscurides, 6th-century illuminated manuscript of De Materia Medica by the 1st century Romano-Greek physician Dioscorides. It is basically the only illustrated scientific text to have come down to us from Antiquity. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
which reminds me
Long before George Stubbs and his obsessive Anatomy of the Horse, 16th century Italian anatomist Carlo Ruini produced a book called “Anatomia del Cavallo”. It included a whole series of disturbing images like this Arterial tree that keeps haunting me ever since I saw it. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
previously
Loosely Analogous 
