262 
genesis of the budding has then to be looked for in an alteration 
of the natural position. 
Mosrrey *) in studying Pungia fungites®), found a portion of 
a very large defunct Fungia quite covered with numerous young 
colonies of various ages. According to Moserer they arose from 
larvae which had attached themselves to the expired Fungiae. 
SaviLLE Kent also describes these Fungiae with young stemmed 
specimens (in /. discus = F. fungites» and gives us a picture of 
one of these with 13 stemmed young corals at the upper-side (Plate 
AKIV el): 
Although he does not dictate either the one or the other concep- 
tion, he deems it most probable that we have to do here with a 
case of budding: (“It is a moot point whether this luxuriant colony 
of Nursestocks arose fortuitously from different sources, or in a single 
embryonic swarm from some more distant corallum, or whether 
they may not represent the product of the expiring vital energy of 
the defunct adult corallum to which they are united. The latter 
interpretation appears to be the most reasonable” *). 
According to DöperLeiN che occurrence of colonies of young Fungiae 
on defunct corals of the same species has nothing to do with budding; 
these young corals he believes to have arisen from extraneous larvae. 
The specimens I collected near Edam all lay in a normal position, 
orifice upwards. They exhibit some peculiarities which point to true 
budding. The specimens alluded to (ef. fig. 5) deviate from those 
described by Srurcnpury, Moserer and Saviure Kent, in that young 
polypes occur only at the border of the upperside of the disc and 
not in the centre. Nor do these buds attain the size of those of 
the Fungia illustrated by Savini Kerr. 
Each specimen is provided with a great number of these young 
corals, one of them with as many as 73 buds. We deem it highly 
probable that this is a case of true budding. The following arguments 
lend support to our view: 
1. The rest of the parent-coral is quite defunct or nearly so. 
Budding is considerably promoted by algae-parasitism, as has been 
pointed out above. Here it arose most likely as the final manifestation 
of vitality of a doomed individual. 
2. These stemmed buds are found only at the border, and not 
') H. N. Moserey, Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger. London, 1872. 
*) Determined by QueELcH as Fungia discus (=F. fungites). (J. J. QUELCH, 
Report on the Reef-Corals. Challenger Exp. Zoology, Vol. XVI, 1886). 
5) W. SavirrE Kent, The Great Barrier Reef of Australia. London 1893, 
p. 90. 
