VIII. Colony-formation in astrœid corals

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Abstract
Colony-formation in the Madreporaria was generally described as taking place by two principal methods, viz., budding and fission. This statement was based on the study of the hard parts, which were examined without reference to the polyps that formed them. Classification largely followed the supposed lines of colony-formation. Fission of a corallite was said to involve the longitudinal division of the stomodaeum of the polyp it enclosed, and might be equal or unequal. Budding could form colonies in almost every conceivable way, bud-corallites arising from almost every part of the older corallites and from the intervening peritheca. Dana, Milne Edwards and Haime, Duncan, von Koch, Ortmann and others evolved a complicated terminology, but all modes of budding might be summed up under two heads—(1) intra-calicinal budding,i.e., budding within the calyx (this will include the supposed fission of corallites), (2) extra-calicinal budding,i.e., budding outside the calyx.

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