PART III.— ON THE DEEP-SEA MADREPORARIA. 



PREFACE. 



A preliminary account of the Corals dredged by H.M.S. Challenger in deep water was 

 published by me in the Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1876. 1 This Report, 

 which related to both Madreporaria and Hydrocorallmse, was drawn up from examination 

 of the specimens obtained on board ship when access to very few books indeed was 

 possible, and no named specimens in museums were available for purposes of comparison. 

 The preliminary catalogue of Corals obtained was therefore very imperfect, and, 

 moreover, only included a part of those dredged. The present more extended descrip- 

 tion is intended entirely to supersede the preliminary report, and includes the entire 

 Challenger collection of deep-sea Madreporaria together with one or two shallow- 

 water species which are not reef-building forms. Since the return of the Challenger 

 Expedition I have been able to compare the collection of Madreporaria with the speci- 

 mens in the British Museum, where every facility for my work was most readily accorded 

 by Dr Gtinther. I have also had opportunity of looking through the collection of Corals 

 in the museum at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and in the Natural History collec- 

 tion at Turin. I have further had the advice and assistance of Professor Martin Duncan, 

 who kindly looked through the collection with me, and showed me the collection dredged 

 by H.M.S. "Porcupine," and lent me those specimens which I needed for comparison. 

 Moreover, through the kindness of Mr Alexander Agassiz, a duplicate set of the deep-sea 

 Corals dredged by the American expeditions has been in my possession for constant 

 reference, with Count Pourtales' labels attached in all cases. Count Pourtales himself 

 also looked through the collection with me when on a visit to Europe about a year 

 ago, and gave me many hints of great value. Professor G. Lindstrom, of Stockholm, 



1 Preliminary Report on the true Corals dredged by H.M.S. Challenger in deep water, between the dates December 

 30, 1872 and August 31, 1875, by H. N. Moseley, Naturalist to the Expedition (Proc. Roy. Soc. 1876, p. 544). 



