110 A. E. Verrill — Bermudian and West Indian Beef Corals. 



Axohelia Schrammii ? Pourt., Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., iv, p. 41, pi. viii, 

 fig. 2, 1874. 



Plate XVIII. Figures 3, 4. 



Coral small, arborescently branched, the terminal branches slender, 

 tapered, acute ; the larger stems are about 12-15 mm in diameter. The 

 coral is hard ; the coenenchyma is abundant in the larger branches, and 

 its surface is covered with long, curved septocostal striae, between 

 which it is microscopically granulated, but there are no lines of gran- 

 ules bounding the calicinal areas, as in Madracis. Septa 10, equal, 

 narrow, slightly prominent. Columella small, solid, tubercular. 



Several specimens are in the Museum of Yale Univ. They are 

 attached to pieces of a cable. (Coll. H. A.Ward.) Guadaloupe (Pourt.). 



Its calicles agree better with A. myriaster (?) Pourt., pi. viii, fig. 

 3, which may not be distinct. No. 5062. 



Family Oculinidse Edw. and Haime, restr. 

 Oeulinidoe Verrill, these Trans., i, p. 514, 1867. 



Corals generally branched, increasing by budding. Calicles round, 

 stellate. Septa 12 to 48 or rarely more, unequal, usually entire or 

 subentire ; pali often present. Interseptal loculi become filled up 

 and obliterated below by a solid endothecal deposit, or stereoplasm. 

 Usually a solid coenenchyma, with curved costal striations on its 

 surface, separates the calicles, especially in the older parts of the 

 coral, where it is often abundant. 



Madrepora (Linne) Oken, restr. (non Lam.). Type, M. oculata Linne. 



Madrepora (pars) Linne, and of all writers before 1801 (not of Lamarck, 1801, 



nor of 1816 ; not of Ehrenberg, 1834). 

 Matrepora, restricted (altered spelling), Oken, Lehrb. Naturg., p. 72, 1815. 

 Oculina (pars) Lamarck, Hist. Anim. sans Vert., ii, p. 284, 1816. 

 Amphelia and Lophelia Edw. and Haime, Coniptes-rendus, xxix, p. 69, 1849. 

 Amphihelia and Lophohelia Edw. and Haime, Hist. Nat. Corall., ii, pp. 116. 



118, 1857. 

 Lox>holwlia Pourtales, Deep Sea Corals, p. 25. 



It is well known that Linne (Syst. Nat., ed. x, 1758) did not include 

 in his genus Madrepora any recognized species of the Lamarckian 

 genus of that name, but placed by an error M. muricata (in which 

 several species were included) in his genus Millepora, although it 

 agrees with his definition of Madrepora. He corrected this mistake 

 in the ed. xii, p. 1_ ; 79, where Madrepora muricata appears. Pallas, 

 (Elenchus, p. 327, 1766) had previously made the same correction. 



No valid attempt to subdivide the great genus Madrepora seems t<> 



