l-fauna of Ceylon. 26 1 



fi 



Antipathes foeniadaeea, Esper, Pflanzenthiere, ii. p. 152, pi. vii. 

 (? Pallas, Elench. Zooph. p. 207). 



Esper's species came from the East Indies ; Pallas gives 

 the Mediterranean as the locality ; so it is doubtful whether 

 he refers to the same species or not. 



Class HYDEOZOA. 

 Subclass HYDROCOEALLIX.E (Moseley). 



Millepora dichotoma, Klunzinger. 



Millepora dichotoma, Klunzinger, Kor. Roth. Meer. hi. p. 86. 



Seems to differ from the description of M. Forskah\ Milne- 

 Edwards & Haime, in having the branches in a large speci- 

 men subparallel and almost wholly fused into laminar vertical 

 expansions. Gastropores at very short intervals, viz. 1-2 

 millim.j dactylopores scattered irregularly between them. 

 In a younger specimen the ends of some of the branches are 

 cuneiform and the branches themselves are more distinct than in 

 the older specimen. I think it best to refer the specimens to the 

 above species, so fully described by Klunzinger, from the Red 

 Sea, and assigned by him with doubt to the same form as the M. 

 For skati of Milne-Edwards and Haime, although the texture of 

 the centre of the branches is denser than that described by 

 Klunzinger, the branches are not particularly brittle, and the 

 distinction in size between the dactylopores and gastropores 

 is well marked. 



Note by \V. C. ONDAATJE, F.L.S., Colonial Surgeon 



of Ceylon. 



* 



I may state roughly the chief features of the coral-reefs 

 from which the corals were collected. 



The position of the reefs is south-west of Ceylon, fringing 

 the coast of Galle ; they are wholly submerged at high tide. 



The corals grow in shallow water, and were collected during 

 ebb-tide in the latter end of 1881, a few months previous to 

 ray departure for England. The mean temperature of Galle 

 is 79°'9 F. 



The predominating kinds which go to the formation of the 

 reefs are as follows: — The family Madreporidse abounds, 



