TRIBE I. ASTRJ3ACEA. 287 



I. Fungidce li/erfc, lion gcmmata. 



GENUS I. FUNG1A. LAMARCK. 



Fungidce liberce non gemmatce, itaque simplicissimcz ; orbiculares aut 

 ettipticcB, interdum conicce. Os oblongum. Tentacula sparsa. Co- 

 rallum superficie supernd profunde radiatd, inferno, lamello-striatd 

 et tuberculatd, radiatd. 



Free Fungidse, not budding, hence quite simple ; orbicular or elliptic, 

 sometimes conical. Mouth oblong. Tentacles scattered. Coralla 

 with the upper surface and to some extent the under surface la- 

 mello-radiate, the latter tuberculate. 



The coralla of the Furigise are the mushroom corals of popular lan- 

 guage. Since the first figure by Forskal,* the animals have been 

 examined by Eschscholtz,t Quoy and Gaymard,J and Ehreriberg. 

 The general colour is some shade of umber, occasionally verging 

 towards purple, and the tentacles have usually a bright green or 

 purplish tint, though sometimes nearly white or brownish. Quoy 

 and Gaymard have represented these organs as sometimes an inch in 

 length ; but in the species examined by the author, and that figured by 

 Forskal, they are less than half this size. There is sometimes a pro- 

 minent tooth on each larger lamella beneath the tentacle correspond- 

 ing. The mouth is large and long, and usually striped vertically with 

 broad lines of different colours. The disk-shape coralla, consisting of 

 radiating plates, resemble much a common mushroom inverted ; and 

 this fact suggested the name of the genus. 



When young, the species are attached, as was first shown by Mr. 

 Stutchbury,^ and sometimes to the under surface of the parent; as 

 they enlarge, they break off, and the scar may often be distinguished 

 in the adult corallum. The animals are said to be capable of progres- 

 sive motion by means of the papilla? below, which, by expanding from 

 the injected water, raise the coral and serve to push it on, much in 

 the same manner as a star-fish crawls over a rock. When turned over 



* Descrip. Animalium, quro in itinerc oriental! obscrvavit, P. Forskal. Haunirr, 1775, 

 tab. 48. 



t Oken's Isis, 1825, p. 746, tab. 5. fig. 19. 



\ Voyage do 1'Astrolabe, Zoophytes, vol. iv. tab. 14. Linn. Trans, vol. xvi. tab. 32. 



