HICKSON AND ENGLAND.—STYLASTERINA. 347 
with sufficient care the beautiful rose-coloured Distichoporas from Hawaii nor any 
specimens from the West Indies, and I am therefore not prepared to say that they also 
belong to the same widespread species; but Iam more firmly convinced, now that I 
have examined Mr. Gardiner’s specimens from the Indian Ocean, that the colour is no 
guide to specific distinction. In the Torres Straits, specimens of the species vary from 
bright yellow, orange, and brown to violet and purple; and in the Indian Ocean we also 
find white, yellow, orange, violet, and purple varieties. In some specimens from the 
Praslin Reef the white varieties exhibit on the thicker branches a blush of pale violet, 
and many of the purple specimens have nearly pure white tips to the branches, which 
fade away into the purple colour of the main stems. 
There seem to be no definitely correlated characters to give us any suggestion as to 
the meaning of the differences in colour. In my former paper (2) on the specimens of 
Distichopora violacea from the Torres Straits I suggested that the orange-coloured 
colonies are usually juvenile and not sexually mature, that the brown colonies are older 
and bear ampullz that are usually male, and that the violet and purple varieties are the 
oldest and bear either male or female ampulle. 
In these Indian Ocean forms I have found that the largest colonies are nearly all 
purple or violet in colour, and bear ampullee some of which are certainly female. The 
brown and blushed varieties are usually smaller, and bear ampullee which I believe to be 
male. The white varieties are frequently the smallest colonies and are sometimes quite 
immature. On the other hand, some of the white varieties do bear a few ampullz, some 
of which I judge to be female, and some of the purple varieties are very small but 
evidently sexually mature. 
If, therefore, the conclusions I have arrived at are true, that the species is protandrous 
and that the purple colour is the last of a series of colour-changes in growth, it is evident 
that colour-change and the sexual condition are not closely correlated and that the 
colour-change is not closely correlated with actual age. 
The reason why I have expressed the opinion that some of the ampulle are male with 
some doubt is that Miss England has recently made the interesting discovery that a 
specimen from the Farquhar Atoll that she examined in section was hermaphrodite. 
Not only are the colonies themselves hermaphrodite, but a single ampulla bears in some 
instances both male and female sexual cells. This is the first time, I believe, that 
hermaphroditism has been recorded in the Stylasterina. I have never seen another case 
in all my preparations of the genera of this order, and I have not discovered yet any 
method of distinguishing hermaphrodite ampulle from purely male or female ampull 
without making sections of them. The ampullz, therefore, that I judge to be males by 
the rough characters of the external features may prove to be hermaphrodite. 
The specimens of Distichopora violacea from the Indian Ocean are, speaking generally, 
rather small and delicate as compared with those from Torres Straits. To give 
measurements of two examples of the largest colonies, I may record a purple variety 
from Coetivy which is 40 mm. in width across the flabellum and 18 mm. in height, and 
a white variety from the same bottle that is 28 mm. in height and 21 mm. in width. 
A7* 
