230 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Corals from Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. 

 Collected by J. C. Branner. 



1. Gorgonia quercifolia Milne Etl wards and Haiuie. 



2. Gorgonia . . . sp. (?). 



3. Siderastraea stellata Verrill. 



4. Favia conferta Verrill. 



5. Mussa sp. related to Mussa verrillii Rathbuu. 



6. Millepora brasiliensis Verrill. 



To this list Mr. Ridley's collecting has added 



7. Astrangia solitaria Lesueur. 



8. Favia aimnas Lamk, 



9. Favia deformata M. Edw. and H. 



Professor P. Martin Duncan, who identified Mr. Ridley's material, 

 remarks that " this little coral fauna has the Abrolhos Reef homotaxis." ^ 



Mr. Eathbun tells me that the species from Fernando are slightly 

 different from those of the coast reefs. 



The Gorgonia quercifolia is washed on shore at the time of the high 

 tides, or after very rough water. The specimens are found principally 

 in the Bahia do Sudoest and upon the point of the island east of Santo 

 Antonio. Some of the specimens are three feet in length. They are 

 generally more or less bruised by the surf. I was unable after much 

 hunting to find these corals growing in place. The fishermen insist that 

 they do not grow near the island, that they are torn up from the deep 

 sea and brought to the land by the waves. The continued roughness of 

 the water and th: la^^k of proper boats upon the island make searching 

 for these corals very unsatisfactory work. I believe the Gorgonia^ grow 

 in or near the mouth of the Bahia do Sudoest, but the small jangadas 

 of Fernando could not live in that troubled sea. 



The Gorgonia . . , sp. (?) is very large and different from anything 

 yet found on the Brazilian coast. But few specimens of this species 

 were found. It closely resembles a species figured by Milne Edwards in his 

 Histoire NatureUe des Coralliaires on Plate B. 2, fig. 6, as Cricogorgia 

 rariiea, but which is unmentioned in the text. 



The Mussa, referred to M. Verrillii of Rathbun, can hardly be said to 

 be rare, though I found but one living specimen on the whole coast. 

 This was found growing in a tide-pool at the base of Morro dos Remedies. 



1 Journ. Linn. Soc. Zoology, 1890, XX., p. 570. 



