ON THE AFFINITIES OF THE GENUS MADKEPOEA. 353 



On the AiEnities of the Genus Madrepora. 

 By George Beook, T.E.S.E., F.L.S. 



[Read 15th December, 1892.] 



The Linnean genus Madrepora was restricted approximately to 

 its present limits by Lamarck, altliougb. as now understood it in- 

 cludes certain species which were referred by him to the genera 

 Oculina and Astrcea. Although few genera of corals appear so 

 well defined and so readily recognized, its relation to other genera 

 of the Perforata is a question on which there has been much 

 diversity of opinion. Dana, in 1848, instituted a family Madre- 

 poridae for the reception of the genera Madrepora and Manopora 

 {=Montipora, Oken, which has priority). Klunzinger (1879) 

 and Ridley (1884) have since adopted this arrangement. On the 

 other hand, Milne-Edwards and Haime (1860) separated the two 

 genera by a considerable interval in the classification which they 

 proposed. According to these authors the family Madreporidse 

 should have a much wider range and include three subfamilies, 

 viz. : — Eupsamminae, Madreporinae (confined to the genus Madre- 

 pora^, and Turbinariinae, They proposed that the genus Monti- 

 pora should form a subfamily (Montiporinge) of the Poritidae. 

 Yerrill in 1865 also included Montipora with the Poritidae and 

 placed Madrepora and Turhinaria in separate families. In 1868, 

 however, he followed Dana in associating Madrepora and Monti- 

 pora together in one family. Duncan, in his Revision of the 

 Madreporaria, read before this Society in 1885, followed 

 Edwards and Haime in the association of Montipora with the 

 Poritidae, but extended the family Madreporidse so as to include 

 Turhinaria, Astrceopora, and their fossil allies. Quelch has pro- 

 posed still different limits for the family Madreporidse, which he 

 regards as including the following recent genera : — Madrepora, 

 Turhinaria, Astrceopora, Anacropora, Montipora. Finally Ort- 

 mann has recently (1890) proposed a new classification of the 

 Madreporaria .in which the genera Madrepora and Montipora 

 rank as families ; the former is placed between the Alveoporidae 

 and the Eupsammidae, the latter between the Turbinariidse and 

 the Poritidae. 



A discussion of the affinities of the genus Madrepora may 

 appropriately commence with a criticism of the views of Duncan 



