«a ZOOLOGY. 



This coral ranges as far north as Nantucket and Buzzard's 

 Bay. In the mushroom corals, Fungia, the large corallum 

 is the secretion of a single polyp which may be a foot in 

 length. Large branching corals abound on the reefs of 

 Florida, the most abundant of which grows nearly two feet 

 high and branches out like the horns of a deer. Such is 

 Madrepora cervicornis Lamarck. . 



While agamogenesiSKor alternation of generations is rare 

 among the ^c£wo?oa,' Semper has observed two species of 

 Fungia which he considers to reproduce in this way. The 

 coralp " bud out from a branched stemi, and then become 

 detached and free, as is the habit pf the genus." Moseley 



Fig. 54.— Coral polyp {AsirfMes calycularis) expanded.— From Tenney's Zoology. 



also describes a Similar case of production of three or four' 

 generations in a Tahitan species of Fungia. .-=••"** 



■ As a good example of the mode of development of .one of 

 the suborder il/(?#eji3or«n«,. we will, with Lacaze-Duthlers, 

 study the development of Afitroides calycularis Pallas. 

 The period of reproduction takes place between the end of 

 May and July, the young developing most actively at the 

 end of June. Unlike Actinia, which is always hermaphro- 

 ditic, this coral is rarely so, but the polyps of diflEerent 

 branches belong to different sexes. 



As in the other polyps, including Actinia, the eggs and 



