MADREPORES 183 



that the former have leaflets below, and those of the ocean have them 

 above (Fig. 66). These leaflets are only expansions of the Madre- 

 pores. Now, although I have not actually examined these stony 

 Mushrooms of the sea, I have no reason to doubt but that they are 

 true genera or species of Madrepores, containing, like others, the 

 animals which form them. In my travels in Egypt, in 1714 and 



Fig. 67. Fungia patella (Lamarck). 



1715,1 never heard it said that the Nile could produce them." In 

 this last remark, Peyssonnel makes allusion to the opinion enter- 

 tained by many ancient authors, that the Fungia were productions of 

 the Nile. 



The animal is depressed and oval, with mouth superior and 

 transverse, in a large disc, which is covered by many thick cirrhiform 

 tentacula ; the polypidom is rendered solid internally by a calcareous 



