646 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 515. 



SOME RECENT LITERATURE ON THE STONY CORALS 



AND A REVIEW OF ' STEINKORALLEN ' VON DK. 



EMIL VON MARENZELLER.* 



During the time that has elapsed since the 

 beginning of 1902, students of the Madre- 

 poraria have shown an unusual activity, and 

 quite a number of very valuable papers, ap- 

 proaching the group from various sides, 

 have been published. A few of the most 

 important will be mentioned. Dealing with 

 fossil corals there are, Lebedew's ' Die Be- 

 deutung der Korallen in den devonischen 

 Ablagerungen Russlands,'t Felix's splendid 

 work on ' The Cretaceous Corals of the Go- 

 sau,':j: and many shorter papers. During 

 this period Duerden has published the results 

 of his elaborate investigations on the ' West 

 Indian Madreporarian Polyps."§ Verrill is 

 the author of several interesting memoirs on 

 West Indian, Bermudan and Brazilian cor- 

 als,] | and 'Notes on Corals of the Genus 

 Acropora.'% Gardiner has published ' South 

 African Corals of the Genus Flabellum '** 

 and Parts I. and II. of his ' Madreporaria ' of 

 the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes.ff 

 Doderlein has published an excellent me- 

 moir on the genus ' Fungia.'XX Bernard has 

 given us a most painstaking and elaborate 

 monograph on the genus Goniopora.%% We 

 are indebted to Alcock for an excellent paper 



* Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der deutschen 

 Tief see- Expedition auf dem Dampfer Valdivia, 

 1898-1899, Bd. VIL, pp. 261-318, Taf. siv-xviii, 

 1904. 



t ' Mem. Comitg Geology.,' St. Petersburg, Vol. 

 XVII., No. 2, pp. ix, 1-180, 5 pis., 1902. 



t ' Die Anthozoen der Gosausehichten in den 

 Ostalpen,' Palwontographica, Bd. xlix, pp. 163- 

 360, 19 Taf., 1903. 



§ ' Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci.,' Washington, Vol. VIII., 

 pp. 399-597, 25 plates, 18 figs., 1902. 



ij Trans. Conn. Acad. Sci., Vol. XI., pp. 63-206, 

 26 pis., 1902. 



f 76i(Z., pp. 207-266, 7 pis., 1902. 



** ' Marine Investigations in S. Africa,' Vol. II., 

 No. 6, pp. 113-154, 4 pis., 1902. 



tt Reviewed in this Journal, Oct. 14, 1904. 



tt ' Die Ivorallengattung Fungia,' Sencloenherg. 

 Naturfors. Gesellsch., Bd., XXVII., Heft I., pp. 

 i-iv, 1-162, 25 Taf., 1902. 



§§'Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Cat. Madreporarian 

 Corals,' Vol. IV., pp. i-viii, 1-206, 14 pis., 1903. 



on the ' Deep-Sea Madreporaria of the Siboga 

 Expedition.' * Besides these longer contribu- 

 tions on recent corals, a large number of 

 shorter ones have appeared. 



Never before have the Madreporaria re- 

 ceived so much earnest attention. The group 

 is being studied in almost every conceivable 

 way by able investigators. The standard of 

 excellence that prevails in these modern con- 

 tributions is very high, it probably has not 

 been excelled. But before the ultimate goal is 

 attained, i. e., the understanding of the rela- 

 tion of the organisms to their environment, 

 the unraveling of the geologic history of the 

 group and the formulation of a classification 

 along philogenetic lines — much more work 

 must be done. However, the outlook was at 

 no previous time so bright as it is now. The 

 one side that most demands attention is that 

 of experimental physiological work — experi- 

 mental study of the effects of environment 

 on variation. These problems could be taken 

 up by some of the marine laboratories. Prob- 

 ably much could be done by the Carnegie 

 Laboratory on the Dry Tortugas. 



Another valuable paper, Dr. von Maren- 

 zeller's ' Steinkorallen ' of the Valdivia ex- 

 pedition, has just come into my hands. 



The Valdivia obtained with 33 hauls of 

 the dredge 29 species of stony corals. The 

 depth varied from 44 to 2,2Y8 meters; in only 

 eight cases was it greater than 900 meters; 

 in two cases it was less than 100. 



There were six stations in the Atlantic 



Ocean, distributed from the west coast of 



Scotland to the Cape of Good Hope. The 



other stations are divided into five groups : 



I. Cape Angulhas and Angulhas Bank, 



southern Africa. 



II. Bouvet Island, Lat. 54° 29' 3" S., 



Long. 6° 14' E. 



III. Islands of St. Paul and New Amster- 



dam, in the southern Indian Ocean. 



IV. West of Sumatra. 



V. From Dar-es-Salam northward along 

 the eastern coast of Africa. 

 It will thus be seen that the collections 

 were made in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. 



* ' Siboga-Expeditie,' Mon. xvia, pp. 1-51, 5 pis., 

 1902. 



