134 A. E. Verritt — Bermudian and West Indian Reef Corals. 



The Jf. elephant at us of Pallas was not an Agaricia, and was 

 from " Oceanus Indicus." It belongs to a strictly Indo-Pacifie 

 group of corals. It Avas carefully described by Pallas, who said that 

 he had seen but a single specimen. So that there was here no con- 

 fusion due to an original mixture of several species. Such confusion 

 was due to the confounding of other very unlike species with it by 

 subsequent writers, even down to the present year. 



Vaughan (op. cit., pp. 63, 64, 67, 1901) identifies it with a Wesl 

 Indian species very close to " M. fragile,''' 1 from which he thinks it 

 may be distinct (p. 67), and he states that he has seen good speci- 

 mens, but does not give the characters. Therefore we can only 

 infer that he considers it a West Indian foliaceous Agaricia. 



Gregory (op. cit., pp. 280, 281, 1895) unites it definitely with the 

 species A. frag His, without a mark of doubt. 



But the species described by Pallas, as plainly stated by him, was 

 a widely different coral. He stated that the stars (calicles) are 

 scattered, nearly in quincunx ; that they are prominent and lacerate: 

 that the exterior of the coral has rather remote, rough, longitudinal 

 costae ; and that it seems intermediate between J/, agaricites and 

 M. lactuca. 



None of these characters apply to the Agaricia fragilis and its 

 allies, nor to any true Agaricia. His description* clearly indicates 

 a coral with large, well-defined, stellate, scattered calicles, having 

 lacerate septa, continuous distally with the subparallel, radial, 

 granulated costae, and with a coarse, roughly costate exterior surface, 

 instead of one with the fine and even striations characteristic of 

 Agaricia fragilis and its allies. 



Pallas does not state that the calicles are in series, nor does he 

 mention transverse sulci or collines, though these characters are 

 carefully described by him under J/, agaricites on a previous page. 

 Hence we must conclude that they did not exist in his species, espe- 

 cially as he also says that the stars are nearly in quincunx. This is 

 also the case in Esper's elephantotus. 



* The original Latin description (Eleneh. Zooph., p. 290j is as follows : — 



' • Madrepora conglomerata subturbinata, intus lainellis granulosis parallelis 

 stellisque lacero-prominulis sparsis. 



Coralliuin format laminani tenuein. subturbinatarn, nndato-crispam. lacihio- 

 sam, sessilem, extns longitudinaliter porcis remotiuscmlis striatum : intus prffldi- 

 tam lamellis longitudinalibus, subparallelis, obtusisatque granulosis, quae passim 

 interrupts? sunt stellis rariusculis, fere in quincunces sparsis. lacero promi- 

 nulis ; barum lamellae ista? longitudinales quasi radii sunt. Locus: Oceanus 

 Indicus. 



P"st quasi medium inter M. Lttvtin-uin & agaric-ibis quasdam varietates." 



