CHAP. 1X.] THE DEEP-SEA FAUNA. 431 
masses which are thrown ashore from time to time 
on the West Indian Islands. 
Professor P. Martin Duncan has already published 
an account of the stony corals (the Madreporaria) of 
the cruise of the ‘ Porcupine’ in 1869, and he has 
now in hand those procured off the coast of Portugal 
in 1870, some of which are of even greater interest 
from their close resemblance to certain cretaceous 
forms. Twelve species of stony corals were dredged 
in 1869. 
Caryophyllia borealis, Furmine (Fig. 4, p. 27), is 
very abundant at moderate depths, particularly along 
the west coast of Ireland, where many varieties are 
found. The greatest depth at which this species was 
dredged is 705 fathoms. It is found fossil in the 
miocene and pliocene beds of Sicily. 
Ceratocyathus ornatus, SEGUENZA.— Of this pretty 
coral only a single specimen was taken in 705 
fathoms, off the Butt of the Lews. It had not pre- 
viously been known as a recent species, and was 
described by Seguenza from the Sicilian miocene 
tertiaries. Flabellum laciniatum, EDWARDS and 
HAIME, was frequent in water from 100 to 400 
fathoms, from Froe to Cape Clear. From the 
extreme thinness of the outer crust, this coral is 
excessively brittle; and although many hundreds 
came up in the dredge, scarcely half-a-dozen examples 
were entire. Another fine species of the same genus, 
Flabellum distinctum (Fig. 68), was dredged on 
several occasions off the Portuguese coast in 1870. 
Tne special interest attaching to this species, is 
that it appears to be identical with a form living in 
the seas of Japan. 
