74 Mr. Biyce Wright on new Species of Corals. 



the form and structure of these corals, and show that the 

 Distichoporidffi fall into two natural divisions, each characte- 

 rized by the foliations of their branches — those in D. Brasseyi, 

 D. Allnuttij and D. irrecjularis being more or less solid and 

 rounded, and those in D. violacea, D. coccinea, &c. being 

 compressed and broad, shelving off at the edges, and more 

 displayed (" gladiiform"). 



The only fossil species known {D. antiqua, Defrance) is 

 found in the Tertiary deposits of France — the habitats of the 

 living species being the Gulf-stream and in and about the 

 West-India Islands and Florida, for D. nitida^ Verrill, and D. 

 cervinaj D.foUacea, D. sulcata, D. harhadiensis, and D. con- 

 torta, of Pourtales. Most of these species are of a whitish tint, 

 with the exceptionof D. /oZ/acea, which is a pale pink-orange, 

 whereas those inhabiting the Pacific are much more vivid in 

 their colours: — D. violacea, Pallas, from Fiji and its vicinity, 

 violet J D. coccinea, Gray, from the Marshall group, deep 

 crimson j and D. rosea, Kent, East Australia, of a pale rose- 

 colour. D. irregularis, Moseley, from Zamboanga, in the 

 Philipi)ines, is of a light pink, and the two species herein de- 

 scribed are of a fuscous or deep foxy-red orange and of a 

 pinkish orange respectively. Lady Brassey's specimens come 

 from the Gilbert Isles, near the equator, and were presented to 

 her by his Hawaiian majesty King Kalakaua. Two frag- 

 ments, apparently undescribed, in the British-Museum collec- 

 tion may probably come from some of the Pacific islands and 

 belong to the same division as those now described. 



The bathymetrical position from which Lady Brassey's 

 specimens were procured has unfortunately not been recorded, 

 but they must have been, I think, obtained by diving, not by 

 dredging ; and as Sir Wyville Thomson, in the deep-sea 

 dredging expedition in the ' Challenger,' obtained a solitary 

 fragment at a depth of 10 fathoms, it seems feasible to suppose 

 that the depths they inhabit in the southern seas are not so 

 great as in those of the Mexican Gulf, more especially as 

 the colours are so much brighter. The area over which the 

 Distichoporidai extend is from^N. lat. 20° to S. lat.30°, W. long. 

 150° to 180°. 



Transverse and vertical sections of the branches (see PI. IV.) 

 show that the gastropores and dactylopores vary considerably 

 in their relative gradation of sizes and in their arrangement, 

 both forms of zooids being regularly and irregularly distri- 

 buted even in the same species (see figs. 6 and 6*, PI. iV^.). 

 These pores are enclosed by a compact network varying in 

 the size and disposition of the meslies according to tlie respec- 

 tive species; in their immediate vicinity the walls of the 



