612 
ON THE MADREPORARIA DREDGED UP IN 
THE EXPEDITION OF H.M.S.“ PORCUPINE.” 
N continuation of Dr. Carpenter’s Report of the Por- 
cupine Dredging Expedition, we now present our 
readers with an abstract of a paper by Prof. Duncan on 
the Corals dredged up during the voyage. 
Professor Wyville Thomson, Dr. Carpenter, and Mr. Gwyn 
Jeffreys have placed the collection of stony corals dredged up by 
them in the Porcupine Expedition in my hands for determination. 
They have kindly afforded me all the information I required 
concerning the localities, depth, and temperature in which the 
specimens were found. My report has been rendered rather 
more elaborate than I had intencled in consequence of the great 
consideration of Professor A. Agassiz and Count de Pourtales 
in forwarding me their reports* and specimens relating to the 
deep-sea dredging off Florida and the Havana. They have 
enabled me to offer a comparison between the British and 
American species, which I did not hope to have done before the 
publication of the species noticed, but not described, in this report. 
1. List of the species, localities, depths, temperatures. 
11. Critical notice of the species. 
Il. Special and general conclusions. 
1. Twelve species of MWadreporaria were dredged up, and the 
majority came from midway between Cape Wrath and the Faroe 
Islands. Others were found off the west coast of Ireland. Many 
varieties of the species were also obtained, and some forms which 
hitherto have been considered specifically distinct from others, 
but which now cease to be so.'t 
11. Three species were found, known only on the area dredged, 
or in the neighbouring seas. Three species common to the area 
and to the Florida and Havana deep-sea faunas only. (These 
forms are not known in the West Indian Cainozoic fauna, and 
they have not been discovered in any European deposits.) 
Lophohelia prolifera (var. affinis) is common to the British and 
Florida deep-sea faunas ; but it is found fossil in the Sicilian 
tertiaries, being moreover a member of the Mediterranean 
recent fauna. Three species common to the area and to the 
Mediterranean Sea. Five species found on the area dredged, 
and as fossil elsewhere. 
The deep-sea coral fauna of the area dredged in the Porcupine 
and Lightning expeditions is therefore composed of— 
5 species which have lasted since the early Cainozoic period. 
1 Mediterranean species not known in Cainozoic deposits. 
3 species of the deep-sea fauna of Florida and Hayana. 
3 indigenous species. 
Two of the fossil species are represented in the recent Medi- 
terranean fauna. If the species which I have absorbed into 
others (in consequence of the light thrown upon the amount of 
variation in the deep-sea corals) were counted, the fossil forms 
would be in all eight. The greatest depth from which AZadre- 
poraria were dredged was 705 fathoms, and the lowest tempe- 
rature of the water in which they lived was 29°'9. 
Caryophylha borealis, Fleming.—Havying collected a very con- 
siderable series of the Cavyophyllie from the seas around Great 
Britain, and having been supplied with several specimens of the 
Mediterranean species, I had compared the whole with the fossil 
forms from the Sicilian tertiary deposits and with each other. 
The numerous specimens of Caryophyllie dredged up in Dingle 
Bay were especially interesting after I had arrived at satisfactory 
conclusions respecting the affinities of the above-mentioned 
British and southern European forms. The Dingle Bay collec- 
tion presented all the varieties of shape, some of which had 
been deemed of specific value, which I had observed in the 
separate assemblages of specimens from the Mediterranean, the 
Sicilian tertiaries, and the British and Scottish seas. A perfect 
series of specimens from all these localities can be so arranged 
as to show a gradual structural transition from form to form, so 
that the most diversely shaped Carvyopfhyllie can be linked to- 
gether by intermediate shapes. The Caryophyllia clavus and 
Caryophyllia cyathus can be united by intermediate forms, and 
all of these to Caryophyllia Smithi and Caryophyllia borealis. It 
is impossible to determine which is the oldest form, but they all 
Contributions to the Fauna of the Gulf Stream at great depths by L. F. 
de Pourtales, rst and 2nd Series, 1868. Bull: Mus. Comp. Zool., Harvard 
College, Cambridge, Mass., Nos. 6 and 7. 
+ One specimen came from the Lzghtnzne Expedition. It must be remem- 
bered that all the deep-sea corals known to Lritish naturalists weren ot 
dredged up. The S¢tylaster vosea, for instance, was not amongst the 
collection. 
NATURE 
[April 14, 1870 
appear to be reproduced by variation on some part of the area 
tenanted by the section of the genus. The variability of the 
Caryophyliie of the Sicilian tertiary deposits is very marked, 
and it is equally so in the groups which live on disconnected 
spots in our waters. The Dingle Bay series presents the greatest 
amount of variability, and indeed is most instructive, for by ap- 
plying the range of it to the classification of such genera as 7¥0- 
chocyathus and Montlivaltia a great absorption of species must 
ensue. The Dingle Bay Caryophyllic are evidently the descen- 
dants of those which lived in the western and southern European 
seas before those great terrestrial elevations took place which 
were connected with the corresponding subsidence of the circum- 
polar land and the subsequent emigration of Arctic Mollusca. 
‘They are not closely allied to the recent West Indian species, but 
they occupy a position in the coral fauna representative of them. 
The same remark holds good with reference to the affinities of 
the recent and the cretaceous Caryophyllie. They are not closely 
allied, and they belong to different sections of the genus, but in 
the economy of the old and new distribution of animal life they 
hold the same positions, and the recent forms are representative 
of the older. The Dingle Caryophyllie@ prove the purely arbi- 
trary nature of species, and that what we term one is really the 
sum of the variation of a series of forms. 
Ceratocyathus ornatus, Seguenza.—A beautiful specimen of 
this rare form was dredged up froma depth of 705 fathoms with 
some Caryophyllia and a small sis. The species is hitherto un- 
known except in the Sicilian miocene. * 
Flabellum Sarsii, Sars, sp.—This is the Ulocyathus arcticus of 
the late Prof. Sars. Many specimens were dredged up, but 
most of them were broken in consequence of the extreme fragility 
and delicacy of the theca. The species links Aladbellum to Der- 
mophyllum : it is not known in the recent Mediterranean fauna. 
Lophohelia prolifera, Pallas, sp., is apparently a common coral 
in the north-western British seas. A separate corallum, which 
must be referred to Lophohelia anthophyllites, Ellis and Solander, 
was dredged up in No. 54. Lophohelia prolifera exists in the 
Mediterranean Sea and the sea between Scotland and Norway. 
Lophohelia anthophyllites is an East Indian form, but its absorp- 
tion into Lophohelia prolifera suggests explanations, considering 
the Cainozoic progenitor, and how it migrated eastwards. The 
relation of the recent East Indian coral faunas to those of the 
European and West Indian Cainozoic deposits has been noticed 
and admitted for some years past. The Cainozoic Lophohelia 
of Sicily is the earliest form of the genus, and those which are 
found in such remote parts of the world as the East Indies, the 
Florida coast, the Norwegian coast and the Mediterranean, and 
which have been determined to belong to different species, are, 
from the study of the curious assemblage of variable forms now 
under consideration, evidently varieties of the old type, Zopho- 
helia prolifera. 1 have therefore absorbed the old species Z. 
anthophyllites, L. subcostata, L. affinis, L. Defrancei, and L. 
gracilis. Two genera of the Oculinide in the classification of 
MM. Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime have always been most 
difficult to distinguish ; and now the results of the dredging off 
the north of Scotland and off Florida and the Hayana necessi- 
tate the absorption of one of them. 
Amphihelia and Diplohelia.—The first, containing recent species 
only*at the time of the enunciation of the classification just re- 
ferred to, and the last, having fossil species only, were very likely 
to be considered separate genera, ZDyzf/ohelia had species in the 
Eocene seas and in the Cainozoic also. Amphihelia was known 
to have species in the Mediterranean fauna, and in that of 
Australia also. Seguenza, however, described some Amphihelie 
and Diplohelie from the Sicilian tertiary deposits which were 
identical, so far as generic attributes are considered, the only 
distinction being a doubtful raggedness of the septal edges. The 
habit and the method or growth and gemmation of the forms 
were the same. M. de Pourtales dredged up a branching form 
from off the Harena in 350 fathoms, and from off Bahia Houde, 
near Florida, in 324 fathoms, and also in lat. 28° 24’ N., long. 
79° 13’ W., in 1,050 fathoms (came up with the lead). This he 
named Diplohelia profunda, On referring} to Seguenza’s plates 
and descriptions of the fossil corals from the Sicilian tertiary de- 
posits, there is no difficulty in deciding upon the very close 
affinity of the species described by Pourtales and Diplohelia 
Meneghiniana, Seg., and Diplohelia Doderleiniana, Seg., fossil 
forms from the mud-tertiary deposits. But on comparing these 
* Seguenza, ‘‘ Disquisiz. Paleont. int. ai Corall. Foss.,”” Mem. della Reale 
Acead. dell. Sci. Torino, serie ii. tomo xxi. 1864. 
+ Seguenza, ‘‘ Disquiz. Paleont. int. ai Corall. Foss.,” Mem. della Reale 
Accad. dell, Sci. Torino, serie ii. tomo xxi. 1864. 
