OCR Text |
Show 1899.] ON T H E CORALLIIDJE OF MADEIRA. 57 This species ranges from the Red Sea to the Loyalty Islands and Funafuti, and has also been found at Singapore, Amboyna, and the Philippines. Mr. Andrews's collection comprises three specimens. They all showed the reddish flesh-tint which Semper says characterizes the female when alive, the male being a dark brown. SIPUNCULUS Linn. 6. SIPUNCULUS EDULIS Lamarck. Lamarck, Animaux sans Yertebres, 1st ed. vol. iii. p. 79. Sluiter, Natuurk. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind., Bd. xli. p. 148, Bd. xlv. p. 484. Shipley, Zoological Results etc. Willey, Cambridge, pt. ii. 1898. This species, which is eaten by the Chinese, is very variable in character and approaches S. cumanensis in many features. The two specimens collected at Christmas Island were of a decidedly pinkish hue, which faded at places into a greyish yellow. 5. Notes on the Coralliida of Madeira, with Descriptions of two new Species. By J A M E S Y A T E JOHNSON, C.M.Z.S. [Received December 3, 1898.] (Plates V.-V1I.) Fam. CORALLIIDvE. Gen. PLEUROCORALLIUM Gray (including Hemicorallium Gray). The genus Pleurocorallium is distinguished from the genus Corallium by the following characteristics :-All the species branch in one plane; the prominent polype-cells are seated on one face of the branches ; and a spicule shaped like a binocular opera-glass or like two carafes united at the sides is present in the cortical ccenenchyma. Madeira appears to be the headquarters of this genus, three of the four known species being found there. The fourth species (PI. secundum Dana) is doubtfully attributed to the Sandwich Islands, and its variety, elatior Ridley, to Japan. There can be no doubt that the hard axis of these corals is capable of taking a polish, and might be worked up into ornamental articles having a commercial value if the corals occurred more abundantly. As it is, specimens are met with so rarely that the demands of museums of natural history cannot be supplied. It may be remarked here that although the Corallium rubrum or C. nobile of authors is found in the Mediterranean, which is to the north of Madeira, and at the Cape Yerd Islands, 900 miles to |