L ted the name of Nullipores for the "millépores avec pores polypifères peu ou 



! apparens", in opposition to "mill avec pores polypifères toujours apparens". This 



name Nulli as outlived its time and cannot be maintained. Philippi l ) first and afterwards 



have shown in a (Kar and convincing manner that a great number of so called 



ent and fossil are Lithothamnia. Gümbel 3 ) in 1871 divided the Nullipores into 



Nulliporcn aus dem Pflanzenreiche : Lithothamnium" anti "die Nulliporen des 



Thierreichs : Dactyloporidae". 



Xhe Da "idae which Gümbel still considered as belonging to the anima) kingdom 



h av , d by Munier-Chalmas 4 ) as calcareous algae belonging to the group 



of 1; ladiaceae. < >ld fossil forms of this family are known according to Stolley ') from the 



a Baltic-Silurian, and recent representatives live in the wanner temperate and tropical 



ls under the generic names of Cymopolia, Neomeris, Acetaöularia, etc. 



If nou these two groups the Lithothamnia in the broad sense and the Dactyloporidae 

 ( Dasycladiaceaej are taken out of the old group of the Nullipores^ one feels inclined to ask, 

 do there still remain any Nullipores^. 



( >n the reefs in the tropical seas calcareous algae are found in great quantities: Hali/ueda, 

 Galaxaura, Liagora, Peyssonelia - ■ this last one remarkable because it sometimes imitates 

 incrusting Lithothamnia - and many others, but none of these will be considered a Nullipore 

 by botanists. A. C. Seward 6 ) speaking of Nullipore* says: "the genus Nullipore has been 

 used in an extremely wide sense embracing organisms which are for the most part members of 

 the vegetable kingdom but including others that must still be retained as animals". This shows 

 rly that the genus of the Nullipores has in tact been broken up into various families ot 

 which none tan prei, nd to the name of Nullipore. 



Still the old name persists ; I was puzzled several times, while reading the beautiful 

 illustrated account of Prof. Agassiz 7 ) on the coral reefs, to understand what the author meant 

 by Nullipores. ( )n page 73 for instance we read "'Nullipores and other calcareous algae" on 

 page 229 "large blocks ot algae and Nullipores". Atter all that I have seen of reefs, I 

 believe that all these bright-coloured Nullipores are algae, belonging to very different families 

 and genera. The old name brings only confusion to a botanical mind ; it can only be used in 

 a very broad sense to indicate all the marine vegetable organisms, which contain chalk in 

 their membranes, thus including all calcareous algae. 



The Siboga Expedition, sent out for the exploration of the deep-sea basins and the 

 marine fauna and flora not only of these but also of less deep and of shallow waters in the 

 Malay Archipelago, visited a great number of islands during her cruise of a year. Whenever 



1 Phili ' o Pfl ind. Wiegmann's Archiv 1837, p. 387. 



. Zur naheren K< I ithal il] .. Denkschr. d. K. Akad. d. Wissensch. Wien 1858. 



I ithamnium und Dactylopora). Abh. d. K. Bay. Akad. d. Wissensch. 1S74, Bd. XI. 

 ur les Alg. calc. appartenant au groupe des Siphonées verticilt. (Dasycladées Haiv.). Comptes 

 rend. 



ind ihre Verbreit. im Skand. balt.-sil. Gebiet. Schrift d. Natuvw. Ver. fut Schleswig- 



! n - [894, vol. II. p. iS. 

 f the lïnp. Pacific. Cambridge l . s. A. 1903. 



