Fungia n. (Zool.) A genus of simple, stony corals; so called because they are usually flat and circular, with radiating plates, like the gills of a mushroom. Some of them are eighteen inches in diameter.
... single mark of a more embryonic or less differentiated character, or less high organization, than the existing 'Heliopora'. As for the Aporose Corals, in what respect is the Silurian 'Paleocyclus' less highly organized or more embryonic than the modern 'Fungia', or the Liassic Aporosa than the existing members of ... — Geological Contemporaneity and Persistent Types of Life • Thomas H. Huxley