NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
797 
St. Paul’s Rocks, off the West Indies in abundance ; it is represented in the East Indian 
region by other allied species. One of the most remarkable instances known of world- 
wide geographical distribution in a deep-sea animal is the case of Bathyactis symmetrica 
(fig. 287), a solitary discoid coral provisionally placed with the Fungiadse. This coral 
varies in the most remarkable manner in size and also greatly in structure. It was 
obtained of all intermediate sizes from a diameter of 3 mm. only to one of 40 mm., yet 
the series obtained was so large and complete that there can be no doubt that all the 
specimens belong to one species. It was further obtained from all depths intermediate 
between 30 fathoms, off Bermuda, and 2900 fathoms, in the East Pacific Ocean. From the 
latter locality some of the finest specimens were obtained, and these were crowded with 
ova and embryos in early stages of development. No relation could be established 
Fig. 287. — Bathyactis symmetrica, Moseley ; three times the natural size. Dredged west of Tristan da Cunha Island, from 1900 fathoms. 
between the temperature, nature of the bottom, or other physical conditions, and the 
size of the specimens. The coral was obtained frequently in both the North and South 
Atlantic, the South Indian Ocean, in the Malay Archipelago, in the West and East 
Pacific, off Japan, and off Juan Fernandez. 
“ A very interesting form from a palaeontological point of view is Stephanophyllia 
complicdta (fig. 288), which was dredged off the Ki Islands from 129 fathoms only. This 
coral is the close ally of the Stephanophyllia of the Chalk and Tertiary deposits. It 
apparently most nearly approaches Stephanophyllia discoides of the London Clay. The 
septa, which are nearly free and straight in the young coral, become most remarkably 
fused together at intervals laterally in the adult, giving the coral a curious honeycombed 
appearance. As far as is yet known, the genus Stephanophyllia survives only in this 
remote spot in the East Indies, its present locality being in no way connected with its 
former one in Europe. 
