[ 493 ] 



XXVIII. An Account of the Mode of Growth of young Corals 

 of the Genus Fungia. Bt/ Mr. Samuel Sttitchbury, 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 



