58 Vaughan — Nomenclature of West Indian Corals. 



scabra, ports substellatis confertis,'''' thus limiting the name to 

 the branching forms, and eliminating such species as Porites 

 astreoides 2a\d Hhodarma calymilaris. Ellis and Solander, I'JSG, 

 figured typical cldvaria under the name 3Iadrepora porites, de- 

 scribing it as '■^Madrepora rmnidosa, rmnis clavato-complamUis, 

 stellis contiguis (linaeUaruni loco) cuspidato-tubercukitis.'''' This 

 completely restricts the specific name^wnYes. 



Link (180*7) a^ed polt/tiiorphus ior Ifadrcpora 2:>orites, Gmel., 

 Syst. Nat. ed. XIII, p. 37Y4; Esper, Th. 1, Jfadrepora, pi. xxi; 

 and Madrep>ora damicornis, Gmel., Syst. Nat. ed. XIII, p. 

 3775; Esper, Th. I, Madrepora pi. xlvi. His only specific de- 

 scription is contained in the words "Vielgestalte jP[onYes]," 

 He confused two sjjecies, and I do not see how his name can be 

 used at all for any species as it is a renaming of Madrejyora 

 porites, as used by Linnaeus, dumicornis. The name is not pro- 

 posed for a part of po7'ites. As shown above, the name porites 

 had been definitely restricted twenty-one years previously by 

 Ellis and Solander. 



Lamarck (1816) describes Po7'ites claimria in words quite sim- 

 ilar to those of Ellis and Solander. To ilhxstrate his species, 

 he refers to pi. xlvii, fig. 1, of Ellis and Solander and Vol. I, 

 pi. xxi, of Esper, each figure being designated 3Iadrepora jxir- 

 ites by the respective author of the work in which it was pub- 

 lished. Ellis and Solander confused nothing else with their 

 one species, therefore Porites clavaria of Lamarck is a precise 

 synonym of Madrepora porites Pallas, restricted by Ellis and 

 Solander. 



Considering the extremely com})lex synonymies with which 

 we have had to deal and the great difficulties encountered in 

 the material itself in studying corals, it is extremely gratifying 

 to me that the differences between Prof. Verrill and myself are 

 so slight, being comparatively trivial. The paper by Prof. 

 Verrill, to which both he and I have referred, is an admirable 

 contribution to our knowledge of corals. I find in it very 

 little from which I dissent; in actual ideas we are in agreement 

 almost completely. 



