82 A. E. Verrill — Bermuclian and West Indian Reef Corals. 



Geoffroyi E. and H.). The former should he called Trachyphyllia 

 amaranthus* (Mtill.). 



Linne evidently had the East Indian species in view when he 

 established the species M. areolata, for he quoted a recognizable 

 figure of it (Rumphius, Amb., 6, p. 244, pi. 87, fig. 1), and gave " 0- 

 Asiatico " as its habitat. His diagnosis is so indefinite that it would 

 apply to either species. This name should properly have been 

 restricted to the East Indian coral, but in view of the whole history 

 of the name, and especially in consequence of the early application 

 of the name, amaranthus, by Midler, 1775, to the oriental species, 

 the name areolata should continue to be used for the American coral. 



Linne, however, quoted Petiver, Pterigraphia Americana, pi. xx, 

 fig. 16, 171:.', which undoubtedly refers to the American species. 

 In the ed. xii, p. 1274, he arbitrarily changed the name to areola, 

 keeping the same diagnosis, with slight changes. 



Pallas (1766, p. 275) added the American species to that of Linne, 

 and quoted references to both in earlier books, though his diagnosis 

 applies best to the East Indian species. 



Esper's name {areola) was applied mainly to the West Indian 

 species, which he figured. His additional figure on pi. iv, figs. 1. -j, 

 erroneously referred by him to meandrites, represents an old speci- 

 men with more or less convoluted grooves, such as are of frequent 

 occurrence in favorable situations. It is represented with wide 

 grooves ; serrulate septa ; and narrow subacute ridges, double in 

 some places. 



Dana's M. dilatata was based on a figure in Ellis and Solander, pi. 

 xlvii, fig. 4. He apparently had no specimen. The figure is not 

 determinable with certainty. It looks like a young Trachyphyllia 

 amaranthus. But it might have been made from a poor drawing 

 of a beach-worn, young J/, areolata. Hence I place 31. dilatata 

 here as a doubtful synonym. In either case the name is useless 



The most important variations in this species are those that are 

 due to the number and closeness of the septa; the amount of 



* According to Bruggniarm (Abhand. naturwiss. Yereins. Bremen. ls;,s. 549) 

 the naniH Madrepora amaranthus was given to this coral by Ph. L. S. Miiller in 

 1775 (German ed. Linne, Syst. Nat., vi, ii, p. 682, which I have not seen), and 

 he proposed to call it Trachyphyllia amarantus. But it seems more desirable to 

 follow Miiller's spelling and call it T. amaranthus (Mull.).' "Sea amaranth'' 

 was its ancient vernacular name. The specific name amarantum, as it was 

 given by Dana, was based on a mistake in spelling. Rumphius called it Amar- 

 anfhvs srt.rcits. 



