482 Mr Gardiner, The Coral Reefs of [Mar. 7, 



I examined eight calices, thus fed, on five branches of Euphyllia 

 gaimardi ; they all showed an abundance of unicellular algae and 

 were mostly stuffed with pieces of green seaweed. The eggs and 

 larvae of Mollusca and Echinodermata were common in all, and in 

 some also fish eggs ; there were a fair number of Radiolaria (9) 

 identified and also the remains of some chaetopod larvae. In 

 addition, one Nauplius larva, one Appendicularia larva, two Sagitta 

 and two Atlanta were observed. In seven calices of the Mussa, 

 experimented on, unicellular algae and pieces of seaweed were 

 very common. There were also identified two Ceratia, one 

 Radiolaria, one crustacean (apparently Nebalia or a larva allied to 

 it), some Protozoa like Noctiluca and the remains of a few Medusae. 

 All the " auftrieb " in Rotuma was very rich in crustacean larvae, 

 and Sagitta, but these, although they had nearly all sunk, when 

 the bottles were lifted, did not seem to have been consumed by 

 the polyps. 



In accordance with a suggestion of Prof. Hickson, I took 

 especial note of the colours of the different species of corals. On 

 our arrival at Funafuti the whole party was struck with the 

 colours of the Pocillopora living on the outer reef; some were 

 a brilliant pink, others an equally brilliant green, and others 

 almost colourless. Closer examination showed that the latter had 

 their calices coloured light green also, and I found that the green 

 coloured forms had the polyps expanded and the colourless con- 

 tracted, and so I concluded that, when contracted, the green forms 

 would be almost colourless. There was one species, living in the 

 fissures of the reef, which showed all three appearances, pink, 

 green, and colourless ; I brought back more than a dozen pieces of 

 it, to see if they were different species, but all can be identified 

 with Pocillopora grandis (Dana). I fixed two bottles firmly on 

 the top of two branches of one of the green forms with tow round 

 their necks and two also on branches of one of the colourless 

 forms. Three days afterwards I found at the top of each bottle 

 on the green forms a few cubic centimetres of gas, and about one 

 centimetre at the top of the other two bottles. The gases from 

 the first two bottles added together seemed to make the spark at 

 the end of a match glow and so to indicate the presence of oxygen ; 

 the result from others was unsatisfactory. I soon after had to 

 leave Funafuti and unfortunately at Rotuma this species was only 

 once obtained. Other Pocillopora, most of which are green, gave 

 for a long time unsatisfactory results, as it was hard to remove 

 this coral from the reef without damaging it, and the species were 

 too small and too exposed to fix bottles over them. Finally I 

 placed in bottles six pieces belonging to one or more of the 

 following species of Pocillopora, between which at that time I did 

 not properly distinguish : — P. verrucosa, P. lacera, P. lobifera, 



