Supplement^ 1 

 January 18, 1894J 



NA TURE 



IK 



-20' F., and could not be left outside the tents at night 

 for fear of damage to the index by the low temperatures 

 experienced. They are not tabulated, nor is there a 

 detailed itinerary, but an interesting appendix shows 

 graphically the heights of the various passes as compaied 

 with the summit of Mont Blanc. 



The illustrations reproduced are selected from a pro- 

 fusion of admirable pictures. Fig. i represents the Ovis 

 poll in their summer feeding-grounds close to the snow- 

 line, and the others are typical of the most impressive 

 plateau and gorge scenery of the region. 



THE GENUS MADREPORA. 

 Catalogue of the Madreporariaii Corals in the British 

 Museum {Natural History). Vol. I. " The Genus 

 Madrepora." By George Brook. (London, 1893 ) 



IT is with feelings of sad regret that we turn over the 

 pages of this monograph. Mr. Brook laboured long 

 and haid at the book, carried it through the press, but 

 did not live to see his labours recognised by his col- 

 leagues. His sudden and premature death has already 

 been noticed in Nature (vol. xlviii. pp. 376, 420), and the 

 present writer would like to add his testimony to the 

 accurate and p .instaking character of the work of George 

 Brook. Happily free from pecuniary anxiety, he was 

 able to, and did, devote his time to scientific work with- 

 out regard to its paying qualities, either as to money or 

 to immediate scientific reputation. 



The monograph row under review was to be the first 

 of a series of memoirs on the classification of the Madre- 

 poraria which were to form part of the great series of the 

 catalogues of the British Museum. As a detailed 

 account of the anatomy of soft parts, of histology, and of 

 morphological problems is foreign to the general plan of 

 this series, we must not expect to find these subjects 

 fui.'y dealt with in this volume ; but Mr. Brook does give 

 a succinct account of the anatomy of the genus Madre- 

 pora, so far as is at present known. For soine years Mr. 

 Brook had been studying the anatomy of the Madre- 

 poraria, and in due time he would have published 

 his results, which would have been of great value. 

 It is to be hoped that what has already been accom- 

 plished by him, but not yet published, will not be lost 

 to science. 



The name Madrepora appears to have been first used 

 by Imperato in 1599; but its precise significance, or 

 rather the sense in which the term was originally em- 

 ployed, does not appear to be generally understood. 

 Imperato clearly 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 

 ' btony mother" appears to indicate the meaning in- 

 tended. Theie 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, how- 

 ever, 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 n-wpo?, i.e. stone, and the English pronuncia- 

 tion of the word altered accordingly. There is no need 

 NO. 1264, VOL. 49J 



to detail here the complicated synonymy of the name ; it 

 is evident that its retention depends for its justification 

 on custom rather than on priority. Dana and all subse. 

 quent writers, except P2hrenberg, have followed Lamarck 

 who retained Linnseus's name for non-typical species 

 {M. muricata) of the original species. Ehrenberg pro- 

 posed in 1834 a new name(Heteropora) for the restricted 

 genus as we now know it, but unfortunately his name 

 had been preoccupied by Blainville. Prof. F. Jeffrey 

 Bell {A. N. H. viii. 1891, p. 109) has also shown that the 

 name "Holothuria" is in an analogous position. In 

 these and similar cases, good sense, rather than a ri^id 

 adherence to rules of priority, should determine the 

 retention of a well-known name, especially when zoolo- 

 gibts are agreed as to the forms which are included 

 under the term in question; but in the great majority 

 of cases it is better to adhere to the generally accepted 

 rules. 



Ur. Duncan [A. N. H., 1884, p. 181) has given an 

 account of the structure of the corallum in three varieties 

 of growth. As was to be expected, the quick-growing 

 species have a lax tissue, while the slow-growing forms 

 are very dense. Mr. Brook objects to the use of the 

 term ""costae" for the external longitudmal ridges on the 

 wall. The porous corallite wall is essentially composed 

 of synapticulas, and is therefore not a theca, as it differs 

 both in structure and origin. According to G. von 

 Koch's view of the origin of a theca, costs are to be 

 regarded as the distal extremities of septa which pass 

 beyond the thecate wall. In the genus Madrepora the 

 so-called costae undoubtedly do not come under this 

 category. They appear before the septa, and bear no 

 regular relation to them, either in number or position. 



Although the Anthozoa are generally regarded as 

 typical radiate animals, those who have studied their 

 embryology and anatomy recognise a fundamental 

 bilateral symmetry which is masked by the tendency to a 

 radial habit which characterises sessile forms. The 

 typical number of septa is 12, viz 6 primary and 6 of a. 

 second cycle, which is usually less developed ; rarely a 

 third cycle occurs ; in many species the primary cycle 

 alone is present. The septa are generally most fully de- 

 .veloped in the axial corallites. It is often stated as 

 characteristic of the genus Madrepora that the axial 

 or directive septa are more prominent than the other 

 primary septa ; but this is by no means always the case,- 

 nor is that condition confined to the genus. Whilst in 

 axial corallites the most usual arrangement is for the 

 primary septa to be sub-equal, in the radial corallites the 

 directive septa are most frequently better developed — 

 either stouter or broader — than the other primaries. In 

 certain groups of species, however, the outer directive 

 septum is more important than the inner ; and in 

 case only one septum is present, it is invariably the 

 outer directive. It appears that in these cases the 

 corresponding tentacle is longer than the remain ng 

 eleven. 



For a knowledge of the soft parts, we are mainly 

 indebted to Dr. Fowler {Q.J. M. S. xxvii. 1886, p. ]), 

 although Mr. Brook did not omit to make investigations 

 on his own account. 1 he structure of the polyp is, in its 

 general features, Actinian, but thereisa maiked bilateral 



