158 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. 



expansion, will be found in the Chromo-lithographic plate No. IV., and a separate photographic 

 figure of Euphyllia rugosa in the Phototype plate No. XXV. 



A very attractive representative of the family Euphyllida? is delineated by Fig. 7 of Chromo 

 plate IV. In this coral the polyps multiply in a similar manner to that of Euphyllia, by 

 subdivision or fission. In place, however, of separating entirely and producing independent 

 corallites, as is the case with the last-named genus, they remain united laterally, and so form 

 undulating linear series of greater or lesser extent. It is a further distinction of the members of this 

 genus that the coralla, while attached in their youngest condition to other coral-growths by a 

 slender stalk, become separated, and lie free on the reef at an early stage of their existence. The 

 colours of the living polyps in this handsome coral are more brilliant even than those of the 

 Euphyllias. As seen in their fully-expanded state, the centres of the polyps are emerald-green 

 variegated with brownish striae, while the tentacles are primrose or lemon-yellow, with the most 

 brilliant lilac or magenta tips. When fully extended, these tentacles are over an inch long, and 

 the lilac tips are spherically inflated, as represented in the figure. When only partly extended, 

 as obtains in the photographic illustration from life reproduced in Plate XXV., Fig. 2, the 

 tentacles are simply subulate, and do not exceed half-an-inch in length. This same variation 

 in the shape of the apical terminations of the tentacles, in accordance with their greater or lesser 

 degree of extension, has been occasionally observed also, it should have been mentioned, in 

 Euphyllia glabresccns. 



Some difficulty has been experienced in the relegation of this coral to its correct syste- 

 matic position. Whilst, in its general aspect, the corallum most nearly resembles that of Pterogyra 

 or Rhipidogyra, its early pedunculate, and later unattached conditions, suggest a nearer affinit}' 

 with Pectinia. To the latter genus, under the provisional title of Pectliiia Jardinei, it is herewith 

 provisionally referred. Examples of the species were collected on the Barrier Reef at Thursday 

 Island, and also, more abundantly, in the Albany Pass, near Mr. Frank Jardine's settlement at 

 Somerset. The specific title has been conferred in recognition of the substantial assistance the 

 author received from Mr. Jardine, when investigating the coral and marine fauna of the Torres 

 Strait district. 



A considerably rarer representative of the family group now under consideration, obtained 

 by the author from North Queensland, is apparently identical with Rhipidogyra laxa. The 

 corallum in this type closely resembles that of Pectinia, last described, its corallites being 

 similarly united in meandering series. A single specimen only of this handsome coral was 

 collected, the locality being, in this instance also, the fringing reef in the Albany Pass. The 

 tips of the tentacles in the living polyps were a brilliant emerald-green, and remarkable for their 

 inflation in the form of a kidney or irregularly-shaped crescent. The stalks or shafts of the 

 tentacles, and also the united central polyp-disks, were, by way of contrast, a rich red-brown. 

 A fragment of the living corallum, with its polyps expanded, is represented by Fig. i of 



