May 22, 1849. 
Harpur Gamble, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 
The following papers were read :— 
1. DescriPTION OF SOME CORALS, INCLUDING A NEW BRITISH 
CoRrAL DISCOVERED By W. MacAnnprew, Esa. 
By J. E. Gray, Esa., F.R.S. etc. 
(Radiata, Pl. IT.) 
As yet only a single living species of recent stony coral has been 
recorded as inhabiting our coast. I am aware that’ M. Milne-Edwards 
and M. Haime have described the Torbay coral as belonging to two 
species and to different genera, viz. Desmophyllum Stokesii, Ann. Sci. 
Nat. ix. 255. t. 7. f. 12, 12 a, and Cyathina Smithii, 1. c. ix. 288 ; but 
from the varieties in form, and especially in the contraction of the 
base, which I have seen in specimens on the same stone, I believe 
the genera and species have been established on very unessential cha- 
racters. 
I may state, that from the observations I have been able to make, I 
believe that the recent corals are very much more influenced by ex- 
ternal circumstances, by the rarity or the abundance of food that the 
animals are able to procure, and by the roughness or quietness of the 
water they happen to inhabit, and the stations they may accidentally 
occupy, than the describers of corals even the most recent are willing 
to allow. This greatly added to the difficulty of distinguishing the 
species ; and if this is the case with the recent corals which we receive 
in a good state, how much more difficult must it be to distinguish 
those only found in a fossil, and often in a worn and imperfect con- 
dition ! 
The British coral here noticed is perfectly distinct from the former, 
and from any European coral that has come under my examination ; 
and when I showed it to M. Milne-Edwards and M. Haime on their 
late visit to this country, they stated that it was quite unknown to 
them, and most nearly allied to an Australasian species. It belongs 
to the genus Flabellum, established by the late M. Lesson in his 
‘ Illustrations of Zoology’ in 1831 for a coral from the Japanese Seas. 
And more lately (in 1841) Dr. A. Philippi established a genus under 
the name of Phyllodes for some fossil allies. Dana, in his work on 
Zoophytes in 1846, has applied the name of Huphyllia to this genus. 
Quoy and Gaimard referred one of the species to the genus T'urbi- 
nolia. 
The only specimen of the coral found by Mr. MacAndrew is un- 
fortunately in an imperfect state, having been broken by the dredge, 
and I have some doubts if it absolutely belongs to the genus F/a- 
bellum, as it appears rather to form a more or less circular expanded 
disk, than a compressed wedge-shaped body. But Messrs. Milne- 
Edwards and Haime appeared to have no doubt of its belonging to 
