BULLETIN 59, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 109 



Ilcrpefolitlia liinn.r (Kspor) iuid //. xtrietu Dana. Kvidcnco of (Iptaohmont .scar 

 very vague. Young .specimens of II. Jollosa " Ehrenberg, however, yhow as ili.stinct 

 a scar as anj- species of Fungia. 



Llthiictima galerlforiuls (Dana), one of Dana's specimens. No evidence of 

 a detaciuncnt scar. 



The evidence, though not positive, is distin<tly in favor of the coralia of all 

 the F'ungiidu' originating as tropliozooids. and liiat the adult forms of the compound 

 genera are due to asexual rt-production. 



Quelch,* Gardinci-.' and Studci'' have called attention to the close relationshij) 

 between Fungia and lliiloiiiitra. both Quel<'li and .''^tnder considci'ing Fu/K/la the 

 primitive form. 



The Albatross obtained a good suite of Fungia scutaria, including trophozooids, 

 from Laysan. Prof. W. T. Brigham has sent me fiv(> adult si)ecimens and a photo- 

 graph of .six oth(>rs. One of the specimens sent is dead and has attached to it five 

 ti'ophozooids. This material presents some important facts. As Bourne has 

 described the postiMubryonic dev(>lopmeiit of Fungni in so uuich detail, I will call 

 attention to oidy a few features. 



The trophozooid of Fungia might, if there were no further development, be 

 referred to the genus Trocliiixvi'is. apparently warranting the conclusion that the 

 ancestral form of Fungia was a simple Agariciid closidy related to Tnirliosrria. The 

 wall and septa are imperforate and a papillarj' columella is usualU' present. 



The most primitive genus of the Fungiida^ undoubtedly is Fungia, and it seems 

 probable that Doderlein is correct in considering the F. patella group the oldest 

 species of the genus. Plate XXIX, tig. in lower left hand corner, represents a 

 specimen of F. scutaria in which there is budding on the disk: in fact, the specimen 

 could easily be referred to Ilaloniltra. 



To summarize the conclusions regarding the ancestry and ph^'logenj- of the 

 Fungi ida^: 



1. The Fungiida' are de.seended from the Agariciidse. 



2. The genus Fungia is the most primitive member of the family. 



3. The other genera of the family are derived from Fungia by new calices 

 arising asexual ly on the disk, {a) In ILilomitra, the .secondar}' calices possess dis- 

 tinctly radiating septa; {h) in Crgptabacia, the axial calices have distinctly radiating 

 septa, but in the lateral calices the radiate arrangement, although evident, is often 

 not so pronounced; (c) in Ilerpetholit/ia and Pohjplnjllia, the axial but not the lateral 

 calices have radiating sei)ta: ('/) in Lithactinia, calices with radiating septa can not 

 be distinguished on the adidt corallum. 



These genera present a series of forms in which lln' radiate arrangement of the 

 septa becomes progessively less distinct. I Iowe\er, the .series is probably not genetic. 

 Ilaloniitni nui}" have been deri\ed from one species of Fungia; Ifirjittolitha fi'oni 

 anothi'r: and Cryptahacia, PolyphylUa, and Litliactinia from another. 



"Submitted to me for identification by Dr. Charles Gravier, of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, 

 Paris. 



" Reef Corals, Challenger Rept., p. 139. 

 •■I'ror. Zoul. Soc. London, 1898, pp. .-)27, .528. 

 rfZool. Jalirb., Syst., XL, p. 408. 



