[ 493 ] 
XXVIII. An Account of the Mode of Growth of young Corals 
of the Genus Fungia. By Mr. Samuel Stutchbury, A.L.S. 
- Read January 19, 1830. 
As I trust that the Linnean Society will receive favourably any 
new observations upon natural history, I beg permission to lay 
before them the following facts in regard to the young state of 
corals of the genus Fungia, which I met with in the Society 
Islands and the Paumotu's or Low Islands forming part of the 
Dangerous Archipelago. 
Having a strong wish to travel and see the productions of 
nature in tropical climates, I agreed to accompany a voyage 
undertaken by a company formed in the year 1825, for the pur- 
pose of fishing for pearls in the Pacific Ocean. My engagement 
was as a collector in natural history. | 
On our arrival at Tahiti a number of natives of that island 
were (as is generally the practice in such voyages) engaged as 
divers, and we proceeded to the Dangerous Archipelago, which — 
is one of the best grounds for the pearl fishery in the Pacific. 
The specimens of Fungia which I have seen, generally lie in 
hollows of the reefs, where they are in some degree protected 
from the more violent agitation of the sea by the surrounding 
portions of branching coral, which inclose the hollows and, at 
the same time, allow sea water free access through their inter- 
stices. | 
It appears, that although the older and larger individuals are 
quite unattached and present no mark of former attachment, yet 
that 
