732 The American Naturalist. [August, 
Zoological News.— CcElenterata.— Some points in the life his- 
tor)' of the coral Fungia are given by Mr. J. J. Lister in the Quarterly 
Journal of Microscopical Science. When young, examples of Fungia 
discus and F. dentata are attached by a broad base and have vertical 
thecal walls. The youngest have six septa larger than the rest. After 
a varying height has been obtained, the upper part begins to widen 
out, forming at first a shallow cup with thecal walls facing outwards 
and downwards, and finally a disc depressed in the center, with the 
thecal walls facing directly downwards, the cup still remaining attached 
to the narrow stalk. After awhile absorption of the calcareous skele- 
ton takes place at the junction of disc and stalk until the former falls 
off. At first there is a round scar on the centre of the free disc corres- 
ponding with a similar scar on the top of the stalk, the scar showing 
the thecal wall and sections of the septa, which latter unite with the 
trabeculse that fill in the middle. The scar in time becomes covered, 
and finally all trace of it is lost. 
The soft tissues are first exposed in the scar. The septa unite with 
the trabecule, which fill in the middle. In the disc there is no com- 
munication with the gastric region, except through the interspaces 
among the trabeculse. The surfaces of the calcareous structures where 
absorption has taken place are white and opaque as compared with the 
general surface of the hard parts of the coral. 
The first change visible in the stalk is that the septa throw up deli- 
cate fluted laminee with serrated edges. A mouth is formed in the 
center, and the lips, in spirit specimens, seem almost in contact with 
the trabeculce below. A thecal wall then springs up, usually a 
little within the margin of the thecal wall of the stalk. A new cup is 
thus formed, as the product of the structures in the base of its prede- 
cessor. As the walls grow they expand outwards, until a ncAV disc is 
formed, and the former round of changes repeated. The stalk grows 
in height with each detachment, the place of every one of which is 
marked by a ridge. 
Dr. von Lendenfeld thinks Fewkes' parasitic hydroid Hydrichihys 
mirus a Sarsia {Biol. Centralblatt, IX., p. 53). It is described in this 
journal (Vol. XX., p. 354). 
Ortmann has been studying the stony corals of the Strasburg Mu- 
seum, and gives some generalizations on their distribution. {Zool. 
Jahrbuch, Bd. III.) He says there are two faunse,— an Indo-Pacific 
and an Eastern-American,— and these have only two species {Helias- 
