October 14, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



503 



marily a ease is for the preservation of speci- 

 mens, but secondarily it plays an important 

 part in furnishing a museum and this fact 

 should not be lost sight of. A series of 

 huge glass boxes does not form an attractive 

 sight, and at the Wistar Institute it was found 

 necessary to provide the cases with a cornice 

 to mitigate the bareness of their appearance. 

 This criticism applies also to the all-glass 

 case, with the additional remark that we have 

 not yet seen a large glass case through whose 

 joints it was not possible to slip a card. 



For storage, library and office use and for 

 purely practical purposes the iron ease has no 

 equal, and it is to be hoped that the time may 

 soon come when such cases can be made at 

 a reasonable price and in a reasonable time. 

 From the variety of design shown in Dr. 

 Meyer's paper it would seem that the above 

 conditions have been satisfactorily met in 

 Germany, or broadly speaking, in Europe, for 

 iron cases have been extensively adopted dur- 

 ing the past decade. Dr. Meyer gives variovis 

 views and plans for floor and desk cases, stor- 

 age cases for insects and eggs, catalogue cases, 

 and bookcases in which a vertical row of 

 shelves, may be withdrawn when books are 

 needed or closed flush when not in use. Inci- 

 dentally Dr. Meyer calls attention to the good 

 results obtained by the use of dyed sawdust 

 as a medium in which to arrange eggs, since 

 this affords a good background and at the 

 same time holds the eggs in any desired place. 

 Naturally it is necessary to be sure that noth- 

 ing in the dye will affect the eggs. Turnstiles, 

 adjustable trucks for moving cases, swing 

 screens,- mountings for skulls and skeletons, 

 are among the things figured and described, 

 all bearing testimony to the thought and time 

 Dr. Meyer has given the subject of museum 

 furniture. F. A. L. 



Madreporaria. Parts I. and II. By J. 

 Stanley Gardiner, M.A. (From ' The 

 Fauna and Geography of the Maldive and 

 Laccadive Archipelagoes,' Vol. II., Part 3, 

 pp. 755-790, Pis. LIX. to LXIV.) 

 This, the first instalment of Mr. Gardiner's 

 report on the Madreporaria collected by the 

 expedition under his charge to the Maldive 



and Laccadive archipelagoes, contains : (1) 

 Introduction with notes on variation, (2) the 

 Astrseidse. 



I. Introduction with Notes on Variation. — 

 The collection contains over 1,000 specimens 

 of dried corals besides a large number in spirit 

 and formalin and a quantity of smaller pieces 

 for comparative purposes. The collections 

 were obtained mainly from (a) Minikoi, the 

 most southern bank of the Laccadive Group; 

 (b) Goidu, the east island of Goifurfehendu 

 atoll; and (c) Hulule, the most southeasternly 

 island of N. Male atoll. An attempt was 

 made to collect as thoroughly as possible — par- 

 ticularly at Minikoi and Hulule — for the com- 

 parison of the localities with one another, and 

 specimens were not generally taken from reefs 

 elsewhere. In addition, dredgings yielded a 

 considerable number of specimens, although 

 few hauls were taken on the outer slopes of 

 the reefs. 



Mr. Gardiner made a series of observations 

 in order to ascertain how far mode of growth 

 is dependent on light and environmental con- 

 ditions and had intended to publish these ob- 

 servations, but thinking that the subject had 

 only a limited interest and because of the cost 

 of suitable illustrations, he did not give his 

 observations in full, merely indicating as 

 briefly as possible under each species the varia- 

 tion found in the several colonies due to these 

 causes. It is very much to be regretted that 

 Mr. Gardiner did not present in full the data 

 that he had accumulated on this subject. It 

 is very doubtful if we shall ever obtain a real 

 insight into what constitutes species in corals 

 without studies of the kind which Mr. Gard- 

 iner apparently made and without a full pres- 

 entation of such data. Quite likely consider- 

 able experimental work will be necessary in 

 order to ascertain more definitely the influ- 

 ence of certain environmental conditions, such 

 as experiments in planting the young from 

 the same parent colony in different localities 

 where the conditions of growth are different, 

 and observing the resultant growth forms. 



Mr. Gardiner divides the variation shown 

 by corals into three classes : («) Vegetative, 

 that is the variation that is due to environ- 

 mental conditions, (b) Continuous, where a 



