266 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION. 
of Wiringili Islet, Minikoi Atoll. Yet from the reefs of these two islands I find that we 
brought home only four such coralla, which were alive when collected. Angular speci- 
mens were numerous at Salomon Atoll, Chagos Archipelago, and yet we obtained only 
three living ones. Of the 480 named specimens before me not 2 per cent. show any 
signs of such irregular or stunted growth at any period of their existence. Considering 
the whole facts, one is driven to the conclusion that such of these animals as are in any 
respect unhealthy are killed out at a comparatively early stage in the struggle for 
existence, which is extraordinarily keen on coral-reefs. . 
In respect to the bathymetrical distribution of the different species, I may point out 
that the species of the Diaseris-group and of the Cycloseris-group are much deeper-living 
forms than the rest, though the genus is essentially a shallow-water one. The greatest 
depth recorded for these Groups is 68 fms., off Kauai Island, Hawaii (Vaughan, Joc. cit. 
p- 180), for F. patella, though this species is also recorded from 18 fms., Tonga Group *. 
The species of other Groups are essentially reef-dwellers, the greatest depth being 
40 fms., Suvadiva Atoll, Maldives, for F. fungites, and 26 fms., Saya de Malha Bank, for 
F. coneinna, 
I append a table of the species of Fwnagia showing their distribution as at present 
known. J. glans, Dana, F. discus, Quelch, /. freycineti, M.-EKd. & H., F. mycoides, 
Aleock, and F. mortoni, Tenison-Woods, are all omitted as doubtful. They require 
further description or the discovery of additional specimens. /. déderleini, Marenzeller 
(Exp. 8.M. Schiff ‘Pola’ in das Rote Meer, xxvi. p. 62, t. xxi. figs. 71, 71 a) isin my 
opinion a stunted and distorted specimen, the more typical forms of which may never be 
recognised. J. pulchella, Verrill, is included fide Vaughan (loc. cit. p. 117), and one 
wishes that he had made more particular mention of it. 
The table shows that the genus Fungia is Indo-Pacific in its distribution, no specimens 
having been obtained in the Atlantic. Its centre or point of dispersal would appear to 
be in the East Indies, from which, omitting Cycloseris-forms and Diaseris-forms, 
11 species come as against 9 from the Red Sea, which has been much more thoroughly 
searched. FF. patella and scutaria are found almost everywhere in these two oceans, but 
F. concinna and fungites, the next most widely distributed forms, do not reach the 
Philippines or Hawaii. Some species, when further collections are examined, will 
undoubtedly prove to be synonyms of others, and many gaps in the list of the localities 
will be filled up. 
Perhaps the geographically most accurate regions in the list are those of E. Africa 
(which is practically Zanzibar), Seychelles, Chagos, Maldives, Ceylon, and Hawaii. If 
the regular reef-living species of these regions (Nos. 10-83) be examined, it will be 
* There is some confusion in Déderlein’s list of localities (loc. cit. p. 66). Quelch (‘ Challenger’ Reports, p. 121) 
records C. tenuis (= F’. patella) from the Philippines and not from Australia. No depth is given, but the deduction 
from p. 27 is that his specimen came from a surface reef. F. discus, Quelch, cannot, I think, be maintained. 
+ The forms described by Pourtalés (Cat. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard, iv. pp. 46-48, 1871) as Fungia and Diaseris 
from various depths in the West Indies between 119 and 450 fms. do not belong to the genus Pungia. 
