NO. 1101. GENERA OF SIMPLE FUNGID CORALS— VA UGHAN. 379 



is veiy douhtfully scpfirable from Grej^ory's Tluimnastraeidce^ though 

 they probably should ])c kept separate. The Mlcrahaclidm have solid 

 septa and perforate walls. The Anahracildix, are characterized by hav- 

 ing a very pronounced and regular ti'abecular septal structure, but in 

 some genera the Ijasal pores between the trabecuhe are tilled with stereo- 

 plasm, bringing this fiimily and the Leptophyllildse, very close together. 



Before the synonymy of the proposed genera can be determined, 

 they must be accurately defined, and here 1 will repeat that the geiierio 

 defTiiitlons must be hased primarily upon a type species. After this has 

 been done the study of variation can bo undertaken, in order to deter- 

 mine the value of characters supposed to be of generic importance. 



The present paper, it is hoped, will aid in the undertaking and 

 carrying out of the studies that must l^e done before we can understand 

 the Fungid corals. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



Family FUNGIID^ Dana (emend. Duncan). 



1846. Fungidir (part) Dana, Znopli. Wilke.s Expl. Exped., p. 283. 



1849. Fniujinx Milne Edwards and Haime, Comptes rend. Acad. Sci., Paris, 



XXIX, p. 71. 

 1884. Fuwjidx Duncan, Jour. Linn. Soc. London, Zool., XXVIII, p. 141. 



Diagnosis <>f tJie fainiJy. — Corallum simple or colonial, depressed 

 or mitroid in form, septa of higher cycles perforate, those of the lower 

 cycles perforate or solid. Synapticula, but no dissepiments, present. 

 Wall usually perforate in young, free individuals; subsequently more 

 or less perforate or compact. No epitheca. 



The above diagnosis of the family probably should be supplemented 

 l)y the following: The embryo becomes attached and forms a tropho- 

 zooid," which gives rise to Inids (anthoblasts); these become detached, 

 forming free individuals (anthocyathi). The anthocyathi may remain 

 simple (the genus Fungia)., or by asexual reproduction become colonial. 



The mode of formation of the '■'anthocyathi'" of Fungia has been 

 known for many years, Stutchbury first describing it in 1830.^ Bourne 

 has made the mode of reproduction of Fungia the subject of very 

 detailed investigations. It has been proven for nearly every known 

 species of the genus that the free disks are produced by buds becom- 

 ing detached from a parent stock (originally a trophozooid). 



J. Stanley Gardiner, in his "Fungid corals" collected in the South 

 Pacific,'' published the extremely interesting observation concerning 

 Ilalornitra {II. irregularis Gardiner), that "the free corallum seems, 

 from my specimens (2), to have been formed in a somewhat similar 



«G. C. Bourne, On the Post-embryonic Development of Fungia, Sci. Trans. Roy. 

 Dublin Soc, V (2d ser.), 1893, p. 206. 



''Trans. Linn. Soc. London, XVI, 1830, pp. 493-498. 

 c Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1898, pp. 527-528. 



