346 Transactions.—Zoology. 
their appearance.” Agassiz observes that they are very slow in expanding 
themselves. When espanded they have no resemblance to true polyps. 
There is simply a fleshy tube with a mouth at top and a few small rounded 
prominences in place of tentacles, four of them sometimes largest. The 
corals of the Millepore are solid and strong, as much so as any in coral 
seas. They have generally a smooth surface, and are always without any 
prominent calices, there being only very minute rounded punctures over 
the surface from which the animals show themselves. The cells in the 
coralline are divided parallel to the surface by very thin plates or tabies. 
The Millepore are very abundant corals. They extend outside the tropics 
in Australia as far south as Moreton Bay. In the West Indies they con- 
tribute largely to the formation of the reefs. 
According to Professor Verrill, there are thirteen species of the genus 
Millepore known, but two of these, M. monilifornis and complanata, are sup- 
posed to be varieties of M. alcicornis and plicata respectively. Without any 
exception they are all tropical and living. They occur, as already stated, 
in the West Indies, and also in the Indian Archipelago, the Red Sea, 
Mauritius, and the Fiji Islands. The occurrence, therefore, of a species in 
New Zealand, and in so cold a latitude as Foveaux Strait, is most singular 
and interesting. Such facts have a tendency to make us doubt some of the 
geological conclusions at which we sometimes arrive. A few years ago, 
the discovery of two reef-building genera of corals in the tertiary beds of 
Tasmania was looked upon as the evidence of an almost tropical climate. 
Indeed, a discussion ensued at the Geological Society of London as to 
whether it might not be presumed that the axis of the earth had shifted 
since these beds were deposited. The coral to which I am now drawing 
attention is truly of a reef-building kind, but I am not aware whether it 
forms reefs. This would be a very interesting subject of enquiry. I have 
named the species Millepora undulosa, from the peculiar undulating character 
of the surface of the branches. It is thus described :— 
Millepora undulosa, n.s. 
Corallum arborescent, very much branched, branches crowded cylindrical, 
spreading in all directions, generally somewhat flattened at the extremity 
and with a short bifurcation, often coalescent, either along the whole side 
of the branch or just at a point of contact, or by sending out a short small 
branchlet from one stem to another. The whole surface of the branches 
undulating with broad but not deep rugosities; cells exceedingly small, 
crowded, giving a spongy appearance; colour, dull reddish-brown. Alti- 
tude of specimen described 80; width at farthest extremity of branches 
* Qorals and Coral Islands, by James D. Dana, English Edition, p. 79. 
