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Show 734 MR. J. STANLEY GARDINER ON [June 6, Unfortunately the abdominal cavity had not been opened before the fish was handed over to me, and in consequence of this, on removing the wall of the left side, I found that the viscera were by no means in such a satisfactory state of preservation as could have been desired, various of the organs being in a soft and decomposing condition. Tbe stomach, which was attached to the dorsal wall of the abdomen by a broad peritoneal fold, possessed the ordinary siphonal form. The proximal portion was very capacious, thin-walled, and marked on the internal surface with numerous regularly disposed longitudinal ruga?. It was entirely empty of food. The distal moiety, comparatively long and narrow, was not clearly rounded off externally from the first portion of the intestinal tract, which was separated from the colon by a w*ell-marked constriction succeeded by a short thick-walled dilatation. The colon possessed a typical transverse spiral valve. The short rectum had appended to it a well-marked rectal gland. The liver consisted of a pair of apparently equal-sized large flattened lobes tapering to their pointed posterior ends. The spleen, of a dark greyish hue, was triangular in general form, with the apex pointing backward from the junction of the proximal and distal portions of the stomach and sent a long narrow lobe along the latter. The pancreas was of a whitish-yellow colour ; in respect of outline it was long, slender, and band-like, and was provided with a long duct which opened into the intestine near its commencement. The ovaries, very imperfectly preserved, formed a pair of elongated, somewhat lobulated bodies of a yellow colour, and the oviducts were of comparatively wide diameter. Nothing could be made out with sufficient certainty as regards the nature of the other viscera. 3. On the Astrseid Corals collected by the Author in the South Pacific. By J. S T A N L E Y G A R D I N E R , M.A., F.Z.S., Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. [Received April 26th, 1899.] (Plates XLVI.-XLIX.) The Corals of the family Astraeidse are represented in the collection made in the South Pacific by 115 specimens, which I have referred to 12 genera and 48 species. Of these I have described 6 species as new, and I have redescribed many of the known species, or added such characters as I have found of practical value for separating the different species of the several genera. I have found the work very arduous on account of the very numerous synonyms existing, not only for species but also for genera. Martin Duncan's " Revision of the Madreporaria" |