ALCYONARIAN CORALS iii 



Until comparatively recent times there was a considerable 

 trade in red coral imported into Japan from Italy, because 

 the Daimyo of Tosa had prohibited the collection and sale 

 of the coral that was occasionally captured by the fishermen 

 in the Bay of Tosa ; but after the Meiji reform of 1868 a very 

 active industry sprang up, coral was found in other localities 

 than Tosa, where it was first discovered, and gradually the 

 exports of coral caught up and passed the imports. In 1901, 

 coral to the value of £50,000 was exported, and most of this 

 was sent to Italy, where the fishery was showing signs of 

 exhaustion. 



The colour of these corals varies from white, ^ through 

 various shades of pink to red, and in some of the Japanese 

 varieties there is a yellowish tinge. The colour seems to be 

 very variable in all the shallow-water species. The deep- 

 sea forms from the Atlantic Ocean are usually white, but 

 the specimens of a species of Corallium obtained by the 

 Siboga Expedition, at a depth of 1089 metres, off Djilolo, 

 was of a full red colour. The variety called black coral, not 

 to be confounded with the "black " coral which is described on 

 pp. 244-250, is supposed to be due to some post-mortem change 

 in the organic constituent of the coral ; but a black specimen 

 obtained in the great depth of 1525 fathoms in the Atlantic 

 Ocean by the Challenger Expedition owed its colour to a 

 deposit of peroxide of manganese. 



The attempt to group the specimens of this genus into 

 satisfactory specific groups is beset with difficulties. Both 

 colour and form seem to be so variable that they cannot 

 be relied upon as specific characters, and such differences as 

 are observed in the shape of the spicules and the degree of 

 retraction of the autozooids are difficult to express in precise 

 terms. So far as can be judged at present, however, the 

 Mediterranean red coral seems to be a distinct species. It 

 differs from all the other forms that have been examined in 

 two interesting peculiarities, (i) that the autozooids bear the 

 eggs and sperms and not the siphonozooids, and (2) that it is 



1 White coral, although not so valuable as the red and pink varieties, is 

 now largely used in jewellery. It is cut from the stems of white species of 

 the genus Corallium, and is principally imported from Japan. 



