2 RECENT MADKKI'OKAKIA oF TIIK HAWAIIAN ISLANDS AND LAYSAN. 



For purposes of ooinimrison, access was j-iven t" the ...llfctions of the Yale 

 University Museum aiul of the United States National Museum. The eollection made 

 by the Albatross under Dr. Alexander Agassiz in the South Paeific in 1!»0(). and a 

 eolleetion sent by Dr. Charles Gravier. of the Mus.'uni <rilist(.iiv Naturelle. Pans, 

 made by himself on the eoast of French Souialiland, East Africa, were studied. 



Mr. J. F. G. Stokes and Dr. C. :\Ioiita,t,aie Cooke, of tiie Bernice Patnihi Pishop 

 Museum, of Honolulu, have furnished valuable data on the physical surroundinos of 

 the corals which they collected on the Hawaiian reefs, a portion of which were later 

 sent to the United States National Museum ])y Dr. W. T. T?rigliam. 



Prof. J. K. Duerd(Mi, during- the summer of 1904:, made an extensive collection 

 of Hawaiian shallow-water corals under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution and 

 the American Museum of Natural History (New York). An opportunity to study 

 this material was granted by the two orgaui/ations concerned, and a- set of duplicates 

 was presented to the United States National Museum by the trustees of tlie Carnegie 

 Institution. 



In the preparation of this work several tasks have been set. They are as follows: 



1. To describe and figure all forms known from the Hawaiian waters or supposed 

 to occur in them, in so thorough a manner that reference to prev'ous publications on 

 the Madreporaria of the islands will not be necessary. It has not. however, been 

 possible to figure the Porites contained in Bernard's recent volume on the Porites of 

 the Indo-Pacific region. 



2. To throw as nuich light as possible on the morphology of the liard parts, and 

 on problen)s of classification dealt with from that standpoint. 



8. To describe the variations of the ditfenuit forms represented as thoroughly 

 as the material and the conilitions under whicli th(> work was done would permit. 



4. To record the physical conditions under wliicii the diflerent forms live in as 

 much detail as possible, and to determine the influences oi depth and temperature on 

 distribution. In this connection the great need of experimental physiological work 

 on members of the group is repeatedly pointed out. 



."p. The affinities -of the Hawaiian Madreporaria to the Madreporaria of other 

 iin-as in the Indo-Paeilic region are considered, and an hypothesis as to the origin of 

 the fauna is suggested. 



No other person can be so conscious of the shortcomings and imperfections of 

 this paper as myself, since there is on every side an insufficiency of data. All that 

 it is hoped to have accomplislied is to have presented a body of facts grouped 

 around certain delinite probU'ins. and. may be. to have rendered some assistance in 

 understanding a group of organisms whose complexity and perplexing nature are 

 realized by only a small body of specialists. 



CLASSIFICATION 0¥ THE MADREPORARIA. 



It is oidy to repeat what has been said by every recent student of the group to 

 say that there is no satisfactory classification of tlu^ Madreporaria. A zoological 

 classilication is supposed to represent descent; in order to construct a logical one, 

 a i)hylogenetic valuation must be placed on each character; but we are not yet sure 



