ii6 CORALS 



leaves it in the position that at present only one species, of 

 almost world-wide distribution in shallow tropical waters, 

 can be recognised, and that species is Tuhipora miisica 

 Linnaeus, formerly called Tuhipora purpurea by Pallas and 

 Tournef. 



The Organ-pipe coral was used in \'ery earh' times in 

 Egypt to make into little beads for ornament, but seems to 

 have fallen into disuse in all but the earliest dynasties. 

 Rumphius has some interesting notes on the magical pro- 

 perties attributed to it by the Malays of his time. It was 

 called the Batu swangi or Magicians' Stone, and was hung 

 on the trees to prevent thieves from stealing the fruit, for 

 anv thief who stole fruit from a tree that it protected became 

 affected with a rash of red pimples. It was also used in the 

 form of a powder as a medicine to cure strangury. 



Telesto Rubra. — A brief note mav be added here on a 

 rare little coral of which only a few fragments have been 

 found in 20-40 fathoms of water off the islands of the Indian 

 Ocean. The colony consists of a single upright tube, re- 

 presenting the body wall of a long axial polyp, which bears 

 a few lateral branches of the same nature. The main stem 

 and the long tubes which spring from it bear a number of 

 prominent verrucae representing an equal number of lateral 

 or secondary polyps. 



In the method of colony formation this species agrees 

 with the other species of the genus Telesto, but it differs 

 from all the others in the fact that the spicules coalesce as 

 they do in the genus Tubipora to form a compact but 

 profusely perforated calcareous tube of a pink or pale red 

 colour. 



Small dried specimens of Telesto rubra might possibly 

 be mistaken for isolated tubes of Tubipora, although they 

 differ from that genus in the absence of anything correspond- 

 ing with the horizontal platforms and in the way in which 

 the young polyps are situated on the body wall of the old one. 

 Moreover, in T. rubra there are eight shallow longitudinal 

 ridges on the outside of the tubes, whereas in Tubipora the 

 tubes are always perfectly smooth. 



The largest specimens that have been found are only 



