350 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



Where the soft Alcyonaria luxuriate, hard corals do not occur : 

 the latter are perhaps smothered by their rivals. 



" Dead corals thrown up on the outer beach suggested a distinct 

 deep-water fauna that was beyond my reach. One of these is 

 Mussa. Another much battered species of which I preserved no 

 examples was frequently seen on the outer beach of both Funafuti 

 and Nukulailai, I suppose to be a Tridacophyllia. 



" Noticeable for their absence were the genera Galaxea, Turbin- 

 aria, Merulina and Dendrophyllia. 



" The usual method of collecting was to anchor a boat or canoe 

 on a reef, wade round in water from knee to waist deep and break 

 off with a hammer and chisel any attractive specimens. Size and 

 colour, the least stable of characters, chiefly guided me in such 

 selection. With many genera a specialist in his study separates 

 with difficulty the species by microscopic characters. When a 

 non-specialist in the field views specimens through several feet of 

 water, it is obvious that he must often confound together distinct 

 species, and therefore fail to collect what he ought to take. Mr. 

 Whitelegge has so frequently recognised two species in material 

 that had been chosen as illustrating one, that I am not now as 

 confident of the completeness of the collection as I was on my 

 departure from Funafuti." 



The Madreporarian corals obtained by Mr C. Hedley at Funa- 

 futi consist of one hundred and seventy specimens, referred to 

 forty-seven species, and include representatives of nineteen genera. 



The larger portion of the collection comprises the usual forms 

 common throughout the coral regions ; there are, however, a 

 few rare or little known species not hitherto recorded from the 

 Pacific, and also two species and one variety apparently new to 

 science. 



In the following pages, a few of the rarer forms have been 

 described at some length, and in many cases, when dealing with 

 the surface echinulations, I have given micrometric measurements 

 of the average distance apart at the apex. It appears to me that 

 the echinulations, if carefully measured in each species, would 

 afford a fairly constant specific character which has hitherto been 

 neglected. 



The measurements given herein have been taken from the 

 younger portions of the corallum. The echinulfe are generally a 

 little compressed, at least at the base, and the micrometre lines 

 have been brought parallel with the compression, but the measure- 

 ments have been taken from the apices. 



Of course there is a considerable amount of variation in the 

 distance apart at the apex, owing to the bending of the echinulae, 



