276 Z. ASCIDIOIDA. Cellepora. 



is generally smooth and more or less rounded : it is sometimes of a 

 yellowish-brown colour, but commonly white, and when dry appears 

 " as if covered over with a silver varnish." 



Notwithstanding the apparent dissimilarity in habit of the three 

 preceding Celleporae, 1 cannot but suspect that they are merely dif- 

 ferent states of the same species : for in these productions the "fronti 

 nulla fides" receives many an apposite illustration. 



4. C. CERVicoRNis, much and irregularly branched ; branches 

 compressed, palmate, truncate ; surface roughish or even, com- 

 pact, with simple circular pores disposed in quincunx. Borlasse.* 



Plate xxxiii. 



Porus cervinus, Borl. Cornw. 240, tab. 24, fig. 7 Millepora cervicor- 



nis. Stew. Elem. ii. 427. Turt. Brit. Faun. 204 M. compressa, Sow- 



erby, Brit. Misc. 83, pi. 41. Turt. Brit. Faun. 204. Jameson in Wern. 

 Mem. i. 560 Cellepora cervicornis, Flem. Brit. Anim. 532. 



Hab. " In deep water, not rare," Fleming. Cornwall, Borlasse. 

 Devonshire, Dr Coldstream. Shetland Islands, Jameson. 



A single specimen of this coral is about 3 inches in height and 

 somewhat more in breadth. It rises from a broad flattened base, and 

 begins immediately to expand and divide into kneed branches or broad 

 segments, many of which anastomose so as to form arches and imper- 

 fect circles. The extreme segments are dilated and variously cut, 

 truncate. Both sides are perforated with numerous pores just visible 

 to the naked eye, and arranged in regular rows : the pores are circu- 

 lar, even with the surface on the smooth and newly formed parts, but 

 on the older they form the apertures of urceolate cells which appear 

 to be formed over the primary layers of cells, and give to the surface 

 a roughish or granular appearance. The orifice is simple, contracted, 

 with a very small denticle on one side. The thickness of the branches 

 varies from a half to two lines ; the interior cellular ; the new parts 

 formed of two layers of horizontal cells, but the older parts are thick- 

 ened by cells superimposed on the primary layers. This species 



certainly treads closely upon the genus Eschara, but Dr Fleming and 

 Milne-Edwards, who had examined an authentic specimen in the 

 York Museum, both agree in making it a Cellepora. It is entirely 

 distinct from Eschara cervicornis, with which it has been confounded. 



• Borlasse, William, of Ludgvan in Cormvall, T>. D., born Feb. 2, 1695-6 ; 

 elected F. R. S. in 1750 ; died Aug. 31, 1772 : tbe author of a History of Corn- 

 wall still held in estimation ; and characterized by his contemporaries as an " able 

 and worthy man." See I'ennant's Literary Life, p. 1. 



