2 GENERAL EEMAEKS. 



text the word is spelled Madripora (p. 717), but in the explanation of the figures the i is 

 replaced by e. In the Latin translation of Imperato's work, published in 1695, the word 

 " Madrepora " is always translated " Porus matronalis/' It is clear from the above quotations 

 that Imperato regarded what we now speak of as the " corallum " as a stony " nurse " in the 

 porous cups of which animal polyps undergo their development, and " stony mother " appears 

 to indicate the meaning intended. When Linnaeus established his binomial system he 

 borrowed this, among other words, from Imperato and gave it a generic value without adopting 

 a proper Latin construction. There is no doubt that the word is, in the first instance, Italian 

 and Linnaeus applied it to the same group of Zoophytes as Imperato had done. As, however, 

 the term was originally used to indicate the " maternal " character of the " stone " rather than 

 its porosity, it appears that the root should be referred to the Greek Trw/ao?, i. e. stone, and 

 the English pronunciation of the word altered accordingly. When we come to the con- 

 sideration of the Linnean genus Madrepora, further difficulties arise which are not so easily 

 disposed of. Linnaeus established three genera among what are popularly known as Stony 

 Corals. The first, Tubipora (= T^^MZara, Imper.) includes the "organ-pipe" coral and is 

 now referred to the Alcyonaria. The second, Millepora, in its present restricted sense, 

 although by no means entirely in the original one, belongs to the Hydrocorallinse. There 

 remains the third genus, Madrepora, which, for practical purposes, may be taken to include 

 the whole of the Madreporaria or Zoantharia Sclerodermata. Subsequent investigators have 

 from time to time subdivided the Linnean genus Madrepora, until, up to the present time, over 

 400 new genera have been proposed. The question then arises, for what part of the original 

 genus has the name Madrepora been retained ? So far as I can ascertain, the only just reply 

 must be that, strictly speaking, none of the species now referred to Madrepora were included 

 in the original Linnean genus. In the twelfth edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' the 33rd 

 species of Madrepora described is M. muricata, and this, so far as I can ascertain, is the only 

 species which comes within the genus as now understood. The specific name has disappeared 

 from our nomenclature and has been replaced by M. palmata, M. flabellum, M. cervicornis, 

 and M. prolifera, all of Lamarck, and possibly also by others. It should be stated that Esper 

 considered species 39, viz. M. infundibuliformis, as a variety of M. muricata. Linnaeus, how- 

 ever, quotes Pallas's M. crater as a synonym, and was probably correct in doing so ; in that 

 case the species belongs to Turbinaria and not to Madrepora s. s. If, now, we turn our 

 attention to the 10th edition of the ' Systema Naturae,' we find that the species named Madr. 

 muricata in Ed. xii. is here referred to Millepora, whilst Madrepora infundibuliformis 

 Ed. xii. appears as Tubipora in Ed. x. Thus, if we take the 10th edition as our guide, 

 the name Madrepora is now applied to a genus of corals which were referred by Linnaeus 

 to Millepora, and only on the publication of the 12th edition were the limits of the genus 

 extended so as to receive them. How far Linnaeus may have been influenced by the views of 

 Pallas is not certain. In the 'Elenchus Zoophytorum' Pallas quotes "Systema Naturae, 

 Ed. X.," in the synonymy, and divides the genus Madrepora into 7 sections, viz. simplices, con- 

 catinatae, conglomeratae, aggregatae, dichotomae, vcgetantes, and anomalse. In the last section, 

 anomalae, he arranges three species, M. muricata, M. porites, and M. foliosa. It is interesting 



