86 SIDNEY F. HARMER. 



II. History of the Species and Genus. 



The tenth edition of the ' Systema Naturae' gives the 

 diagnosis of certain species referred to the genus Tubulipora^ 

 of which the first or type species is T. music a, the organ- 

 pipe coral. Amongst these (p. 790) occurs T. serpens. 



The twelfth edition contains (p. 1271) a diagnosis of T. 

 serpens, as " T. tubulis cylindricis erectis brevissimis dis- 

 tantibus axillaribus, basi repente dichotoma divaricata." This 

 is practically identical with that given in the tenth edition, to 

 which a reference is given, with the further reference ' Amcen. 

 Acad./ i, p. 105, t. 4, f. 26. 



The species is thrown up on the shores of the Baltic, while 

 a similar but smaller form occurs in the Mediterranean, the 

 only locality mentioned in the former edition. 



A reference to the first figure which is quoted by Linnaeus, 

 namely, to that contained in his ' Amoenitates Academicse ' 

 (vol. i, 1749), leads to the conclusion that the original descrip- 

 tion did not refer to the species which is now usually known 

 as Idmonea serpens. The figure is on a plate headed 

 *^p. 312," and the description is on p. 209 [not 105]. The 

 figure, with which the description agrees, represents a stone 

 bearing a closely adherent species, consisting of an open 

 network of tubes with single pores at considerable intervals, 

 usually at the angles of the meshes. It is hardly possible to 

 recognise any similarity to any species of Tubulipora or 

 Idmonea; but, on the contrary, the figure is strikingly sug- 

 gestive of the Alcyonarian Sarcodictyon catenatum, 

 Forbes, and closely resembles the figure of that species given 

 by Herdman in the ' Proc. Liverpool Biol. Soc.,' vol. ix, 1895, 

 pi. viii, fig. 2. 



Whether the description of Linnaeus referred to Sarco- 

 dictyon or to an Alecto-like form must be left an open 

 question,! but I think that it can have had no connection with 

 any species of Tubulipora or Idmonea. 



In 1755 (9, p. 74) Ellis described, under the name of the 



* Milne Edwards (29, p. 331) believed that it referred to an "Aulopore." 



