322 DR. G. J. HINDE. 



in the First and Second Borings. The only species recognised is M. nodosa, Esper. 

 This species, with three others of the genus, have been determined by Whiteleuge,* 

 at Funafuti. 



Genus Stylaster, Grey. 



Only a single small fragment was observed in unconsolidated material from the 

 depth of 75 feet in the Main Boring. No recent example of the genus has been 

 recorded at Funafuti. 



Alcyonaria. 



Genus Lobophttum, Marenzeli.er. 



Fragments of the cylindrical or compressed basal stem of forms of this genus, 

 embedded in the solid cores, are present occasionally at various depths throughout 

 the Main Boring, and also in the Lagoon Boring. They consist of a mass of fusiform 

 tubercular spicules, reaching to 2 millims. in length by 0"5 millim. in thickness, which 

 are nearly in contact, and without orientation. The minute spaces between the 

 spicules are filled with the matrix of crystalline calcite, or dolomite, or occasionally 

 with consolidated sediment. The stem fragments are now generally encrusted by 

 layers of Polytrema and Lithothamnion, and to this envelojjment their preservation 

 as stems is partly due. 



Detached spicules of the same form as those in the stems are present in great 

 numbers, both in the solid cores, and in the unconsolidated materials, throughout all 

 the borings, and they materially contribute to the mass of the rock. These spicules 

 are more resistant to change than the skeletons of Madreporarian corals ; they retain 

 their fibro-crystalline characters when the structures of the corals associated with 

 them in the same cores have been destroyed and obliterated. The genus Xo^op^^/^^^w, 

 to which the stem-fragments and detached spicules are referred, is now represented 

 by several species, which, according to WHiTELEGGE,t flourish plentifully in the small 

 reefs of the lagoon at Funafuti. 



Genus Heliopora, Blainville. 

 Heliopora c^rulea, Pallas. 

 This form occurs frequently in the Main Boring, in a well-preserved condition, 

 between 1-100 feet ; it appears again in the form of decayed casts at 190-210 feet ; 

 below this level it has not been met with. It is also common in the First Boring, but 

 rare in the Second ; pieces of it are also present in the Lagoon Boring at 62-144 feet 

 below the floor. Professor Sollas| calls attention to this species, which with Porites 

 forms a dead coral-reef slightly above the sea-level at low water, in the Mangrove 

 Swamp at Funafuti ; Mr. Stanley Gardiner§ dredged up a small living piece on the 



* Mem. III., Austral Mus., Sydney, part 7, 1899, pp. 374-377. 



t Jbid., 1897, p. 214. 



t 'Roy. Soe. Proc.,' vol. 60, 1897, p. 510. 



§ 'Cambridge Phil. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 9, part viii, 1898, p. 436. 



