126 Mr. J. E. Gray^s Outline of an Arrangement of Stony Corals, 



vision of their digestive cavity, so in these, there are all kinds of 

 intermediate gradations hetween the two modes of development 

 above described ; indeed in some corals, as the Madrepores, in the 

 early stages of the animal, the buds appear to be developed from 

 the base of the sides forming a crust, and then one of the ani- 

 mals which is larger and stronger than the rest, ascends above 

 the level, throws off buds from its upper part, and the coral 

 becomes arborescent. 



The buds are developed in various manners from the surface 

 of the body ; in the Oculina axillaris , Lam., they are emitted 

 from each edge of the cells, and the coral becomes forked with 

 the stars in the axilla ; in O. prolifera, Lam., one or two buds 

 are produced from one side of the animal ; and hence a kind of 

 secund arrangement of the cell. In O.flabelliformis a single bud 

 is developed on one side of the animal, and then this developes 

 another on the opposite side ; so that the young cells form a kind 

 of zigzag stem, and the whole coral assumes a fan-like shape ; 

 while in O. virginea and hirtella the buds are so developed, that 

 the animal assumes a somewhat spiral direction, the cell at the 

 tip being the one last developed. 



In other corals, as the Seriatopores, the buds are developed in 

 pairs on the alternate side of the branch, hence the cells appear 

 in longitudinal series ; and lastly, in the Porites, Pocillopora 

 and Sideropora, each of the animals at the end of the compressed 

 branches developes a bud on the upper side, and the branches 

 are prolonged. 



In other corals a single animal continues to ascend, and as it 

 grows developes from its sides a succession of buds which form 

 lateral cells ; some of these being produced form branches emit- 

 ting buds like the original stem. This is well seen in Caryo- 

 phyllia ramea, Lam., where the lateral cells and branches are 

 smaller than the main stem ; sometimes, as in C. flexuosa, Lam., 

 where the whole coral assumes a subglobular shape, the branches 

 are nearly as large as the stem. In the genus Madrepora the 

 original animal as it elongates gives out a succession of buds on 

 all sides, forming subspiral whorls of cells round its base ; some 

 of these cells in their turn becoming the parent of a similar set 

 of buds. It is this original cell which forms the " apex per- 

 foratus '' in Lamarck's description of these corals. 



There is extreme difficulty with regard to the authority that 

 can be placed in the figures hitherto published of the animal of 

 these corals. Donati (Mer Adriat. 50. t. 7) figures the animal 

 of Madrepora ramea, and M. Milne Edwards, who has seen the 

 animal on the coast of Africa, assures us it has nothing resem- 

 bling the hooked appendages figured by Donati {Lam. H. edit. 2. 

 ii. 354). MM. Quoy and Gaimard figure in the Voy. of the Ura- 



