486 MR. H. N. MOSELEY ON THE STRUCTURE OE THE STYLASTERIM. 
Description of Plates. 
Note. — The whole of the figures appended to the present paper relating to soft 
structures have been prepared so as to represent by means of ideal sections the con- 
clusions as to structure arrived at by prolonged study of long series of preparations. 
It would have been impossible to give facsimile drawings of all the preparations from 
the study of which facts of importance were arrived at, and thus to lay the evidence 
before the reader in a pictorial form. The practice of illustrating scientific papers 
treating of minute anatomy by figures which profess to be facsimiles of preparations, 
and in which often all defects due to breakage of sections or obliquity of the line of 
cutting are reproduced, seems to me to be much to be deplored, and only tends to 
create confusion and needlessly increase the number of figures without in any way 
enhancing the credit which will be given to the results. The drawings can never 
be so accurate as to stand in the place of preparations. They will always represent 
to some extent the author’s views as to what is to be observed in the preparations. 
It seems far better that in the modern stage of the science of finer anatomy, drawings 
should represent the results attained, in as complete and concise a form as can be 
devised, so as to convey these results to others almost at a glance, if possible. 
In the present figures all the histological details, as well as the major features of 
the structures represented, have been drawn accurately to scale by means of a series 
of micrometic measurements. The amount of magnification in diameters is given at 
the bottom of each plate or figure. Since in the majority of the plates ideal sections 
through complex canal meshworks are represented, the canals composing the mesh- 
works are necessarily shown as cut open in all directions. 
PLATE 34. 
Drawings of the Coralla of several species of Stylasteridse of which the corresponding 
soft tissues are described in the present paper. 
Fig. I . Sporadopora dichotoma. Young vigorous specimen which was obtained in 
the living condition. Natural size. 
Fig. 2. Sporadopora dichotoma. Older specimen reduced in size to one-half of its 
dimensions to show the method of branching in the more fully grown 
specimens. 
Fig. 3. Spinipora echinatci. Enlarged to twice the natural size. 
Fig. 4. Astylus subviridis. Several of the branches of the specimen are broken off. 
Natural size. 
Fig. 5. Stylaster densicaulis. Portions of a corallum of the natural size. 
Fig. 5 a. Portion of a tip of a branch enlarged. 
