13 



which followed the contemplation of so much 

 beauty (cheers). 



On the table were a number of specimens of 

 conil from the Natural History Section ot the 

 Canterbury Royal Museum, which the lecturer 

 had named, and also some very fine specimens 

 brought by Mr. Morg^an, and presented by hiu) to 

 the Museum. The lantern was manipulated by 

 Mr. Fiddian and Mr. Argrave. 



At the conclusion of the lecture, the President 

 said he had a very pleasant duty to perform in 

 thanking Mr. Morgan for his extremely interesting 

 and iostructive lecture on a subject of which few 

 of them knew anything before that evening. One 

 of the great merits of the lecturer was not only 

 his intimate acquaintance with his subject, but 

 also his ntense love for it, and the enioyable way 

 in wliicli he had set it before them (hear, hear), 

 'i'hn more they looked into Natural History, no 

 matter wliat branch it was, the more wonderful 

 appeared the works of the Great Creator. Look- 

 ing a^: the structure of the coral.*, it was a 

 uiaiveilous thought that the thousands of polyps 

 all had a common stomach, and any food which 

 one had in excess was shared by the others. It 

 seemed to him that in this particular the wildest 

 dream of the Socialist was realised, for the 

 animals all obeyed one great law, and Uv^d for 

 the Colony as a whole and not for themselves. In 

 this respect coral was not more wonderful than 

 the creations of the vegetable world. There were 

 many specimens of coral on the table, and there 

 ffere a large number m their Museum below. He 

 was afraid people did not take enough interest in 

 them, but he was always ready to give any assist- 

 ance in his power (hear, hear). 



Mr. Sidney Harvey proposed a vote of thanks to 

 .Mr. Morgan, and expressed the hope that before 

 long they would have the pleasure of seeing him 

 in tanterbury again (hear. hear). 



Mr. Morgan having briefly returned thanks, the 

 proceedings terminated. 



Through the kindness of Mr. Morgan and the 

 courtesy of the Camberwell Vestry we are able to 

 reproduce two plates illustrating several of the 

 (^orals described by the lecturer and photographs 

 of which were shown by means of the lime-light 

 lantern. In the lecture it was stated that there 

 did not exist any English text book dealing with 

 the nomenclature and classification of corals, 

 therefore it would be unwise in describing these 

 illustrations to attempt an authoritative classifi- 

 cation. We can only follow some rough plan. 



Coral polyps belong to the Sub-kingdom Ccelen- 

 terata — which, translated into the vernacular 

 means with a hollow stomach, 



Corals belong to one of three orders : — 



(1.) Alcyonaria. 



(2.) Madreporaria, 



(3.) Hydrocorallinse. 

 Coral polyps of the first mentioned order are 

 characterised by two things, the number of their 

 tentacles is eight, and they are fringed. As a 

 rule these corals are horny, but a few exceptions 

 are composed of carbonate of lime. 



The second order are sto7iy, i.e. .- composed of 

 carbonate of lime, and the Polyps have six ten- 

 tacles, or a multiple of six. But in some fossil 



orders as Rugosa we find four, or a multiple of four. 



The third order is very differftnt to the others, 

 and although the Polyps are very small, yet they 

 form heavy rock-like coral termed Hydrocoraline, 

 which occurs iu large masses and contributes very 

 considerably to the great reefs of th'j Pacific. 



All the corals illustrated belong to the second 

 or Madreporarian order. 



In the illustrations. Figs. 1 to 5, are various 

 Madrepores, well illustrating the beautiful and 

 varied forms which are met with. 



Fig. 6, Pachyseris rugosa, belongs to the family 

 Lophoseridie, which includes several graceful 

 forms of coral, see Figs. 9, 17, 18, and 19. If the 

 surface of this (No. 6) coral is examined with a lens 

 it looks like delicately woven muslin. 



Fig. 7, Dendrophyllia ramea, is said to be 

 obtained off the coast of Portugal, at a depth of 

 half a mile! Most members of this genus flourish 

 at great depths. 



Fig. 8, Galaxea clava. In this family a number 

 of cups stand on one .common platform. Br. 

 Hickson speaks with admiration of the living 

 Galaxea as he first saw it. " The polyp cups," he 

 says, "are raised half an inch above the general 

 surface, and contain most beautiful emerald green 

 polyps, united with one another by delicate fleshy 

 strands of the same colour. When I first saw it 

 the polyps were fully expanded, and the mass 

 looked like some handsome ornament studded 

 with emeralds of the first quality." — '* A 

 Naturalist in Celebes," p. 134. 



Fig. 9, Mycedium. Professor Dana gives it 

 another and more appropriate name, Phyllastrea, 

 meaning star leaf coral. This genus also belong 

 to the family Lophoserida.'. 



Figs. 10 and 11, Tridacophyllia (lettuce corals), 

 have the walls of the calieles thinner than any 

 other genus, their substance is little more than 

 that of tissue paper. 



Fig. 12, Ocidina, of the family Oculinidx. In 

 this family we come again to a purely branching 

 coral. But the substance is much more compact 

 than the Madrepores, so much so that white 

 necklet beads maybe made and polished from the 

 delicate marble-like stem-;. These corals abound 

 in the West Indies, but Mr. Saville Kent only 

 met with a solitary species on the Great Barrier 

 Reef. 



Fig. 13. Fungia, of the Funqidae or mushroom 

 corals, takes us to the class of single corals ; that 

 is where the whole is the deposit of one single 

 zoophyte. Starting from a small disc on a parent 

 stem, this disc is ultimately thrown off to lie at 

 the bottom of some ocean pool and grow to larger 

 dimensions, and sometimes into fantastic shapes. 



Fig. 14-, Stylophora, is remarkable for the 

 brilliant crimson colour of the zoophytes. 



Fig. lo, Dendrophyllia, see also Fig. 7, many 

 corals of this gen us are very beautiful, as 

 D. nigrescens, which Dana describes as rising to a 

 height of three or four feet. The stem is sur- 

 roundsd by a cortex of olive green. The zoophytes 

 have a green centre with an orange circle^and the 

 tentacles are white. It needs little imagination 

 to conceive of this coral with all its zoophytes 

 expanded and gracefully moving tooatch the food 

 as one of the most beautiful objects that either 

 sea or land can afford. 



