Mr Gardiner , Notes on Variation, Protandry, etc. 463 
Some Notes on Variation and Protandry in Flabellum rubrum, 
and Senescence in the same and other Corals. By J. Stanley 
Gardiner, M.A., Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. 
[Read 19 May 1902.] 
Contents. 
Collections examined. — The genus Blastotrochus. — Discontinuous variation in 
Flabellum rubrum . — Protandry in the same (formation of testes, replace- 
ment by ovaries, escape of ova, and formation of fresh ova). — Senescence 
in F. rubrum. — Coenopsammia willeyi from the Maldives. — Madrepora 
pvlcra from Rotuma. — Other instances from the Maldives. — Consideration 
of death in the Madreporaria (senescence, death of single species over 
large areas, and comparison with the bamboo). 
About a year ago I received for determination some hundreds 
of specimens of Flabellum from the Biological Department of the 
South African Museum, Cape Town. Of these eight belong to 
F. pavoninum, while the remainder — over 500 in number — are 
referable to F. rubrum, of which F. cumingii, elongatum, crassum, 
crenulatum, elegans , spheniscum, profundum, irregulare and trans- 
versale are synonyms. Mr Forster Cooper and I also dredged 
a number of specimens in the Maldives, which mostly — -being 
especially carefully preserved — have been used in the subsequent 
part of this investigation. Further, for the species, I have with 
the assistance of Prof Jeffrey Bell and Mr H. M. Bernard examined 
the British Museum collection. 
The account of the species, anatomy, and development of the 
Cape of Good Hope collection of Flabellum forms the subject of 
a memoir, in the press, among the “ Marine Investigations in South 
Africa,” published by the Department of Agriculture of the Cape 
Colony. These Notes form a supplement to that paper, founded 
on a renewed investigation of special points in my Maldivan and 
in the British Museum specimens in addition to those from the 
Cape of Good Hope. 
Semper procured specimens of F. rubrum in the Philippines, 
and described them in 1872 under the name of F. irregulare \ 
He dredged his specimens in the Lapinig Channel, off Bohol, in 
the centre of the group from 6 — 10 fathoms. With them were 
also obtained a large number of specimens of F. stokesi — described 
1 Zeit. fiir wiss. Zool., Bd. xxn., pp. 242 — 245, PI. xxvi., figs. 7 — 17. 
