Mr. J. Miers on the Genus Cortesia. 427 



capable of swallowing a fish twice as large as itself, still it 

 would not attempt to swallow the large fish and enormous 

 hooks that are used in the shark-fishing. I need not say that 

 this fact corroborates Dr. Gunther's opinion as to this fish 

 being a deep-sea species. 



I am further indebted to Professor Bocage for a specimen 

 of a coral dredged in this same valley. It probably belongs 

 to the family Isidse, and appears to me to belong to a new 

 genus, which I have described as Keratoisis Grayii. 



Is it not to these deep-sea valleys that we must look not 

 only for new and strange forms, but even for some of the 

 supposed recently extinct forms, which may be yet found 

 lingering in these abysses, safely there outliving the ravages 

 of time ? Professor Sars calls attention to one fact that would 

 seem to point in this direction ; for, in a memoir * on the fossil 

 animal remains of the quaternary formation in Norway, he calls 

 attention to the fact that certain remains of marine animals, 

 found in a semifossil condition in these formations, are found 

 living when looked for at certain depths below the existing 

 level of the sea. Professor Sars mentions that the bottom of 

 the Gulf of Christiania, in the neighbourhood of Drobak, for 

 the space of some three-fourths of a Norwegian square mile, 

 and in an abyss of some 70 or 80 up to some 7 or 8 fathoms 

 in depth, is strewed with Oculina proliferaj Linn., occurring 

 in great masses of from one to two feet in diameter : never- 

 theless not a single living polyp is ever found on these 

 masses; but at the same time they have the appearance of 

 having been comparatively recently torn away from the 

 place where they originally grew. Ofi* the Norwegian coast, 

 however, this very same Oculina jprolifera^ Linn., is found 

 living in great quantities at the depth of 300 fathoms and 

 lower. 



LY. — On the Genera Cortesia a/ic? Rhabdia. 

 By John Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 



Cortesia. 



This genus was established by Cavanilles, in 1797, upon a 

 plant collected by Louis Nee in his overland journey from 

 Chile to Buenos Ayres. His account of this little-known 

 plant is upon the whole coiTCct ; but, as there are some points 

 of structure unnoticed by him, I will here add the results of 



* I only know Prof. Sars's paper from tlie abstract given in the ' Cor- 

 respondenz-Blatt des zoologisch-mineralogischen Vereines in Regensburff, 

 21. Jahrgang, 1867, pp. 72-74. 



30* 



