2 GENERAL REMARKS. 
text the word is spelled Madripora (p. 717), but in the explanation of the figures the i is 
replaced by e. In the Latin translation of Imperato’s work, published in 1695, the word 
“ Madrepora” is always translated “ Porus matronalis.” It is clear from the above quotations 
that Imperato regarded what we now speak of as the “ corallum” as a stony “nurse” in the 
porous cups of which animal polyps undergo their development, and “ stony mother” appears 
to indicate the meaning imtended. When Linnzeus established his binomial system he 
borrowed this, among other words, from Imperato and gave it a generic value without adopting 
a proper Latin construction. There is no doubt that the word is, in the first instance, Italian 
and Linnzeus applied it to the same group of Zoophytes as Imperato haddone. As, however, 
the term was originally used to indicate the “ maternal ”’ character of the “ stone ” rather than 
its porosity, it appears that the root should be referred to the Greek w@pos, i.e. stone, and 
the English pronunciation of the word altered accordingly. When we come to the con- 
sideration of the Linnean genus Madrepora, further difficulties arise which are not so easily 
disposed of. JLinnzeus established three genera among what are popularly known as Stony 
Corals. The first, Tubipora (= Tubulara, Imper.) includes the “organ-pipe” coral and is 
now referred to the Aleyonaria. The second, Millepora, in its present restricted sense, 
although by no means entirely in the original one, belongs to the Hydrocoralline. There 
remains the third genus, Madrepora, which, for practical purposes, may be taken to include 
the whole of the Madreporaria or Zoantharia Sclerodermata. Subsequent investigators have 
from time to time subdivided the Linnean genus Madrepora, until, up to the present time, over 
400 new genera have been proposed. The question then arises, for what part of the original 
genus has the name Madrepora been retained? So far as I can ascertain, the only just reply 
must be that, strictly speaking, none of the species now referred to Madrepora were included 
in the original Linnean genus. In the twelfth edition of the ‘Systema Nature’ the 33rd 
species of Madrepora described is M. muricata, and this, so far as I can ascertain, is the only 
species which comes within the genus as now understood. The specific name has disappeared 
from our nomenclature and has been replaced by M. palmata, M. flabellum, M. cervicornis, 
and M. prolifera, all of Lamarck, and possibly also by others. It should be stated that Esper 
considered species 39, viz. AM. infundibuliformis, as a variety of M. muricata. Linnzeus, how- 
ever, quotes Pallas’s M. crater as a synonym, and was probably correct in doing so; in that 
case the species belongs to Turbinaria and not to Madrepora s.s. If, now, we turn our 
attention to the 10th edition of the ‘Systema Nature,’ we find that the species named Madr. 
muricata in Ed. xii. is here referred to Millepora, whilst Madrepora infundibuliformis 
Hd. xu. appears as Tubipora in Ed. x. Thus, if we take the 10th edition as our guide, 
the name Madrepora is now applied to a genus of corals which were referred by Linnzeus 
to Millepora, and only on the publication of the 12th edition were the limits of the genus 
extended so as to receive them. How far Linnzeus may have been influenced by the views of 
Pallas is not certain. In the ‘ Elenchus Zoophytorum’ Pallas quotes “ Systema Nature, 
Ed. x.,” in the synonymy, and divides the genus Madrepora into 7 sections, viz. simplices, con- 
catinate, conglomerate, aggregate, dichotome, vegetantes, and anomalz. In the last section, 
anomal, he arranges three species, M. muricata, M. porites, and M. foliosa. It is interesting 
