250 Mr. S. O. Ridley on the Coral-fauna of Ceylon. 



s. v. 



XXXIV. — The Coral-fauna of Ceylon, with Descriptions of 



new Species. By Stuart 'O. Ridley, M.A., F.L.S. 



The distribution of tlie Anthozoa and Hydroid Corals in the 

 Indian Ocean is very imperfectly known ; those of Ceylon 

 have been almost wholly neglected. Blyth and Kelaart, who 

 have devoted special attention to the animals of Ceylon, do 

 not deal with the corals. Among the few specific references 

 in modern times to the subject, which I have been able to find, is 

 the identification of a stray species from there in Milne-Edwards 

 and Haime's c Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires.' Pallas 

 and Esper, who have probably done more for the zoology 

 of the Indian Ocean than any others of the older writers, and 

 of whom the latter exhibits a special acquaintance with 

 Southern India and Ceylon, give the localities of their Indian- 

 Ocean species of corals, for the most part, as u Indian Ocean" 

 or " East-Indian seas;" I have found no specific allusion to 

 Ceylon in connexion with corals in the writings of these 

 authors. Verrill mentions three species with certainty, one 

 with doubt, from Ceylon (Proc. Essex Institute, vol 

 &vi.). Mr. H. J. Carter describes (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 (5) v. pp. 442, 454, vi. p. 152) from the Gulf of Manaar, on 

 the north of the island, under the name Hydradendrium, a 

 species obtained by Capt Cawne Warren with Sponges, 

 Foraminifera, &c, also a species which he assigns to Tubi- 

 pora, also a Rhizoxenia and Spongodes without specific names. 

 General remarks on the coral-reefs and corals are found in 

 Prof. E. Hackel's letters to the ' Deutsche Rundschau ' for 

 1882 (translated in part in * Nature,' 1882), and in a sepa- 

 rate work by the same author, entitled 'Indische Reise-Briefe ' 

 (Berlin, 8 vo, 1883). Prof. Hackel, as is well known, made 

 large collections in Ceylon ; and a scientific account of his 

 investigations there is to be anticipated with much interest. 

 Dr. W. C. Ondaatje, F.L.S., Colonial Surgeon of Ceylon, 

 has called my attention to some plates representing Ceylon 

 corals, contained in a work entitled " Ceylon : Skizzen seiner 

 Bewohner, seines Thier- und Pflanzenlebens, by Baron von 

 Ransom let-Villez," which describes the reefs and enumerates 

 ten species, probably all included in the list below, except two 

 Turbinarice. Darwin describes the reefs generally in his 

 1 Coral Islands.' Sir Emerson Tennent makes a few allusions 

 to corals in his work on Ceylon. 



It is to Dr. Ondaatje that we owe this opportunity of becom- 

 ing acquainted with the precise characters of the Ceylon coral- 

 fauna. His permanent sojourn and his journeys in the island 

 have afforded him special facilities for accumulating facts and 



