CHAP. VII.] THE DEEP-SEJ FAUNA. 431 



masses which are thrown ashore from time to time 

 on the West Indian Islands. 



Professor P. Martin Duncan has already published 

 an account of the stony corals (the Madreporaria) of 

 the cruise of the ' Porcupine ' in 1869, and he has 

 now in hand those procured off the coast of Portugal 

 in 1870, some of which are of even greater interest 

 from their close resemblance to certain cretaceous 

 forms. TM'^elve species of stony corals were dredged 

 in 1869. 



CaryophylUa borealis, Fleming (Pig. 4, p. 27), is 

 very abundant at moderate depths, particularly along 

 the west coast of Ireland, where many varieties are 

 found. The greatest depth at which this species was 

 dredged is 705 fathoms. It is found fossil in the 

 miocene and pliocene beds of Sicily. 



Ceratocyathus ornatus, Seguenza. — Of this pretty 

 coral only a single specimen was taken in 705 

 fathoms, off the Butt of the Lews. It had not pre- 

 viously been known as a recent species, and was 

 described by Seguenza from the Sicilian miocene 

 tertiaries. Flabellum laciniatum, Edwards and 

 Haime, was frequent in water from 100 to 400 

 fathoms, from Pseroe to Cape Clear. Prom the 

 extreme thinness of the outer crust, this coral is 

 excessively brittle; and although many hundreds 

 came up in the dredge, scarcely half-a-dozen examples 

 were entire. Another fine species of the same genus, 

 Flabellum distinctum (Pig. 68), was dredged on 

 several occasions off the Portuguese coast in 1S70. 

 The special interest attaching to this species, is 

 that it appears to be identical with a form living in 

 the seas of Japan. 



