287 



cane sugar, and it should therefore be removed by decantation 

 or filtration. Fermentation of the syrup and the conversion of 

 the sugar into lactic acid and raannite takes place in warm 

 weather. It should therefore be boiled before viscous fermen- 

 tation takes place. Dr. Jackson expressed the opinion that the 

 Sorghum would ripen in the Northern States in warm seasons, if 

 planted early. 



Mr. Theodore Lyman read a paper upon a new spe- 

 cies of Coral, as follows : — 



The genus Oculina, established in 1816 by Lamarck, includes 

 the polyps distinguished by the solidity of their corallum through- 

 out ; to this feature may be added, that they have generally a 

 tendency to branching, and an abundance of solid tissue between 

 the calicles. The animals themselves, so far as observed, have a 

 well-marked central disk, and about twenty-four slender, tapering 

 tentacles, alternating longer and shorter. Prof. Dana (1848) 

 describes nine species under the genus Oculina, and six species 

 under the genus Allopora, which was included by Lamarck's 

 genus Oculina, and which includes Allopora (Ehrenberg, 1834) 

 and Stylaster (Gray, 1831). Milne Edwards and Haime (Mon- 

 ographie des Oculinides, Annales des Scien. Nat. 3^™<^ Serie, 

 tome xiii. 1850,) have established a family of Oculinida;, which 

 includes, besides new species, all species under the above-named 

 genera. This family has twenty genera, principally character- 

 ized by the modes of budding, the variations of the columella and 

 paluli, the smoothness or roughness of the surface, and the shapes 

 of the lamellae. Of these genei"a, several are fossil, and others 

 have only new species. The species, according to Dana, are 

 changed as follows, by Edwards, 0. diff'usa, varicosa, and pallens 

 appear under the name diffusa ; 0. ocidata and virginea become 

 oculata. 0. horrescens is transferred to the genus Acrhelia ; 

 0. prolifera to Lophelia ; 0. axillaris to Cyathelia ; and 0. hir- 

 tella to Schlerhelia. And, finally, the Caryophyllia anilwphyllum 

 of Dana is brought into this family and put in the genus Lophe- 

 lia. It should be observed that these genera of Edwards and 

 Haime are, as usual in their classification, founded entirely on 

 the structure of the polyp frame, without reference to the soft 

 parts. 



