28 MADRACIS ASPERULA. 



Naturelles, but there are no sufficient grounds for separating thein 

 specifically. 



The color is variable, sometimes light brown with l)lack or dark 

 brown calicles, or purplish pink of different shades, with or without 

 darker calicles. 



West of Tortugas, in 3G fathoms. 



Saint Nicholas Channel, off' Bahia de Cadiz, in 120 fathoms. 



Madracis decactis Verrill [Astrcca decactis Lyman, Proc. Bost. Soc. 

 Nat. Hist., Vol. VL, 1857), Plate VII., figs. 1, 2, and 3, is found to a 

 depth of 17 fathoms. It is generally thin and incrusting, but also rising 

 in club-like masses. A specimen received from Mr. R. Arjingo, in 

 Havana, forms thick branches bluntly expanded at the end, 6 cm. 

 high, and 4 cm. in diameter.* Sb/lophora incrudans Duch. & Mich. 

 I strongly suspect to be a young Madracis decactis, f and Heiima lamcl- 

 losa Duch. & Mich., the full-grown form. % 



Slfjlopliora mirahilis Duch. & Mich, is a Madracis also, wdth mas- 

 sive cfenenchyma. 



The Museum of Comparative Zoology has also received from Mr. 

 Arango, in Havana, specimens of a coral, which agrees with the 

 descrijDtion of Axohelia myriader, M.-Edw. & H. It differs from 

 Madracis mirabilis chiefly hj its striated ca?nenchyma and larger 

 calicles, which, instead of being prominent, are rather sunk below 

 the surface. 



* The polyp is purplish brown, tentacles tipped with white ; disk emerald green, mouth yellow. 

 The mural lines separating the polyps are tipped with white. The tentacles are in one circle, five 

 of" tiiem large, prominent, and almost spherical when fully expanded, the white tip swelling up in 

 that shape. Tiie other tentacles are in groups of thi'ce between the larger ones, the total number 

 being thus twenty, or double the number of the se[)ta. There are thus five primary, five secondary, 

 and ten tertiary tentacles. The disk, when fully expanded, projects in the shape of a cone, with 

 the mouth at the apex. The water is kept in a whirling motion over the mouth by ciliary action. 

 The animal bears handling and taking out of the water very well, expanding again after a few min- 

 utes of rest. 



t Duchassaing et Mi(;helotti, Supplement au Memoire sur les Coralliaires, Plate IX., fig. 3, is evi- 

 dently a magnified portion of Sli/laster chf/ans, represented on fig. 4. Fig. 2 may be intended to 

 represent S/ij/ophnra iiicnistans, the nund)ers having been niis[)laced. 



X There is again here (Duchassaing et INIichelotti, Memoire sur les Coralliaires des Antilles) a 

 confusion in the lunnbering of the figures, and in the figures themselves. One of the generic char- 

 acters of Reussia (diifering in no way from those of Madracis) cons'sts in haA'ing always ten septa. 

 Fig. 9 of Plate IX., purporiing to be a magnified portion of lleussin lamellosa, shows from fourteen 

 to twenty-seven ! Fig. 8 agrees well with the large specimens of Madracis decactis from Havana. 



