CORALS FROM MURRAY, COCOS-KEELING, AND FANNING ISLANDS. 95 



The coral from French Somaliland, which I referred to as Orbicella {Leptastrea) 

 hotter, 1 is correctly identified, according to Klunzinger's description and figure. 

 Klunzinger lays special stress on the character of the septal margins. He says: 



"Die Septa sind ziemlich dick, besonders gegen die Mauer hin, und stark gekornt, oben 

 debordiren sie und sind flachbogig oder wie abgestiizt, inner fallen sie, ausser bei den flacheren 

 Randkelchen, senkrecht ab, und es bleibt in der Mitte eine meist ziemlich enge, c. 1 Mm. von 

 der Columella ausgefiillte Centralhohle." 



The characters of the specimens I have referred to the same species are pre- 

 cisely the same. Klunzinger contrasts the ' 'obengerundeten oder etwas abgestiizten 

 primiiren Septen" of L. incequalis with L. bottce. Remarks have already been made 

 on Matthai's figure of the type of L. bottce. 



L. agassizi and L. hawaiiensis, which I described from the Hawaiian Islands, 

 were discriminated as follows: 



Calices 2.5 to 4.5 mm. in diameter. 



Septa in 3 cycles, a few quaternaries. 



Primaries usually decidedly exsert; primaries and secondaries reaching the columella L. agasshi. 



Calices about 2 mm. rarely 3.5 mm., in diameter. 

 Septa in 3 cycles. 



Primaries somewhat exsert; primaries and a few secondaries reaching the columella L. hawaiiensis. 



The discrimination was largely based on the greater exsertments of the primary 

 septa in the former. A restudy of the material has convinced me that the two 

 forms intergrade and represent variants of one species. Comparison of the Hawai- 

 ian specimens with the material from Cocos-Keeling and Dijbouti, French Somali- 

 land, has also convinced me that they all belong to one species, L. bottce (Milne 

 Edwards and Haime), and that another instance is furnished of a species ranging 

 geographically from East Africa to the Hawaiian Islands. 



I am referring 34 specimens in the U. S. National Museum to this species. 

 These represent at least 4 recognizable variants, as follows: 



1. Leptastrea botta, typical. Calicular rims barely or not at all projecting; upper margins of 



the septa truncate; paliform lobes not distinctly developed. 



2. The form designated by Klunzinger as L. ina-qualis. Corallites projecting as short 



cylinders or truncated cones; upper margins of septa arched; primaries notably 

 larger than the higher cycles; calices deep, paliform lobes weakly developed; colu- 

 mella lax. 



3. This differs from No. 2 by more nearly equal primary and secondary septa and by con- 



spicuously developed paliform lobes on the primary and on many or all secondary 

 septa. 



4. This is the variant to which I applied the name L. agassizi. Calicular margins only 



slightly elevated. The margins of the primary septa are strikingly exsert. 



Dr. Wood Jones has brought one small perfect colony and a piece of a larger 

 one from Cocos-Keeling. The calices of each are represented by plate 31, figures 

 3, 4. Plate 31, figure 4, is nearly typical L. incequalis; plate 31, figure 3, is near 

 the variant numbered 3 in the foregoing account of the variations of the species. 



Habitat and color, Cocos-Keeling Islands. — Dr. Wood Jones's notes state: 

 "Found on the lagoon margins of barrier flats and also in the lagoon. The colonies 

 are yellowish or greenish." 



Distribution. — Red Sea; French Somaliland; Maldives; Minikoi; Cocos-Keel- 

 ing Islands; at many places in the southern and central Philippines; Hawaiian 

 Islands. 



'Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 32, p. 252, 1907. 



