4 GENEKAL EEMARKS. 



In an enumeration of the works in which species of the genus Madrepora s. s. are 

 recorded it is necessary to begin with Linnaeus, who recognized only one species, viz. 

 M. muricata. Pallas did not describe any new species, but divided M. muricata into three 

 varieties, viz. : — «. ramosa, yS. corymbosa, and 7. an incrusting variety. Esper, in his 

 ' Pflanzenthiere,' figures several varieties of M. muricata and also another which he named 

 M. rosacea, which appears to be distinct, but had been overlooked until Studer revived the 

 name. Lamarck, in 1816 *, described 9 new species of Madrepora and dropped altogether 

 the name M. muricata, Linn., to which, indeed, he does not refer in the synonymy. No new 

 recent species are added in the second edition of Lamarck's work edited by Milne-Edwards, 

 but a list is appended of 7 fossil species of doubtfal affinity described by Goldfuss and 

 Defrance. 



Ehrenberg, in his 'Red-Sea Corals/ recognized 21 species, 13 of which are described as 

 new ; the remainder are referred, though sometimes erroneously, to species already described 

 by Lamarck. He regarded Astrtea pulvinaria and A. microphthalma, Lamk., as synonyms of 

 Madr. palmata, Lamk., and referred Oculina echidncea, Lamk., to the genus Madrepora 

 [Heteropora, Ehrb.), It should be understood that, although Ehrenberg's work is nominally 

 on the Red- Sea Corals, several species of Madrepora are included in it which were not 

 collected in the Red Sea. In the account of the Zoophytes collected during the voyage of 

 the ' Astrolabe,' Quoy and Gaimard enumerate 4 species of Madrepora from Tongatabu and 

 Fiji, aU of which are referred to species already described by Lamarck. Unfortunately the 

 descriptions and figures given are so imperfect that subsequent authors have found it almost 

 impossible to identify the species ; even Milne-Edwards, who had access to the collection, gave 

 up the task as hopeless. 



Next in order follows Dana's work on the Zoophytes of the North-American Exploring 

 Expedition, probably the most important work on recent Corals which has yet appeared. The 

 work contains descriptions of 64 species of Madrepora which were observed by the author, 53 

 of which are described as new ; the majority of the new species are figured in the Atlas. 

 Duchassaing, in 1850, published a list of Radiata from the Antilles in which three species of 

 Madrepora are enumerated. M. plantaginea, Lamk., was probably included in error, and was 

 omitted from the author's later works. 



In 1860 the 3rd volume of Milne-Edwards and Haime's ' Coralliaires ' appeared, in 

 which the species of Madrepora described by previous authors are arranged and classified ; 

 eighteen new species are also described. No work of so comprehensive a character has since 

 been published, and the ' Coralliaires ' is therefore still a necessary handbook ; but its 

 usefulness is considerably interfered with by the shortness and insufficiency of the diagnoses 

 and the almost complete absence of illustrations. It is probably owing to these conditions 

 that subsequent investigators have so frequently failed to recognize the species described by 

 Lamarck and Milne-Edwards. 



In 1860 also Valenciennes contributed a short paper to the ' Comptes Rendus ' on the 



• Beferences to the systematic works are given under each species in the synonymy. 



