Deep-Sea Corals

Abstract

PROF. H. N. MOSELEY, F.R.S., in his masterly address to the Biological Section of the British Association at Montreal, dealt, amongst other matters, with the zoological position of the remarkable genera of deep-sea corals named Guynia, nobis, and Haplophyllia and Duncania, of Pourtalès. He states that he has found, after examing sections of the last-named genus, that the soft parts indicate that it and the others are Hexactinia, and have the construction of Caryophyllia and of all other corals of that group. These genera were placed amongst the Rugosa, the first-mentioned by myself fourteen years since, and the others by Pourtalès later on. On April 3 of the present year I read a communication to the Linnean Society, entitled “A Revision of the Families and Genera of the Madreporaria,” and this revision is published. As Prof. Moseley left England before I could send him a copy, he and some other naturalists who study the corals will be perhaps interested by knowing that I have placed those genera where Prof. Moseley has located them subsequently. They form an alliance in the family Turbinolidæ, and I was led to alter the classificatory position on account of a careful examination of the hard parts.