CORALS FROM MURRAY, COCOS-KEELING, AND FANNING ISLANDS. I99 



The specimen referred by Dana to Pontes conglomerata (Esper) is in the U. S. 

 National Museum, No. 683. Basing an inference on Bernard's account 1 of Pontes 

 lutea, this specimen is the type of the species. 



P. lutea has a corallum nearly enough like that of P. somaliensis for them to be 

 considered of the same growth-form, the calices are of about the same size, the septa, 

 palar rings, and septal denticles are similar, and they both have the peculiar junc- 

 tion of the members of the triplet by a membrane tranverse to the septal planes. 

 The palar arrangement also seems similar, but the walls appear to be persistently 

 different. That of P. lutea is zigzag, interrupted, and ragged, and in places near 

 the lower edge it is obscure. The skeletal surfaces of P. lutea are not so conspicu- 

 ously and roughly granulate as P. somaliensis. 



The following are Bernard's introductory notes on and description of his Pontes 

 fidjiensis secundar 



"Under this heading I propose to group four specimens; in spite of remarkable differ- 

 ences in habit, they all have the same essential structure of calicle, and apparently the same 

 growth-form. 



" Description— -The corallum is massive; its surface breaks up into lobules which are 

 fairly uniform in size and shape, about 2 to 2.5 cm. across, and showing a slight but distinct 

 tendency to be bluntly ridged, rather than round-topped. The valleys between the lobules 

 are shallow, except where three meet, when they dip down steeply into small hollows 1 cm. 

 deep. 



"The calicles vary on the different specimens from 1 to 1.5 mm. The walls all show a 

 sharp, thin median ridge of fused trabeculae, which rise to different heights; they are highest 

 when the calicles are small and alveolate, lowest when the latter are large and shallow. On 

 each side of the median ridge there is a ring of granules or flakes; in cases in which the calicles 

 are small and deep and the skeleton light, these are seen to be the septal granules, but the 

 whole aspect of the calcicle changes when they are broad and flaky, as in the larger shallower 

 calices; they then form together a broad platform all round, just beneath the top of the 

 median ridge. The septal formula is always complete (fig. 3, b); the four principal pali are 

 very large. The ventral directive is continued into a keel, which, deep down in the fossa, 

 represents a flattened central tubercle. On each side of this long directive the free septa 

 bend sharply round just below the pali to form with it a trident. Still deeper down a clear 

 columellar ring can be generally made out, with a varying number of attachments to the 

 centre." 



Other areas which would more nearly duplicate Bernard's figures, especially 

 his plate 3, figures 2 and 3, might have been selected on Dana's specimens. 

 Distribution. — Fiji Islands. 



10. Pontes limosa Dana. 



Plate 88, figures 2, 2a, Dana's type of the species. 



1846. Parties limosa Dana, U. S. Expl. Exped., Zooph., p. 563, plate 55, figs. 2, 2a. 

 1905. Parties fidjiensis quarta Bernard, Cat. Porites Indo-Pacific, p. 46, plate 3, figs. 6, 7. 



The following is a description of Dana's type of Porites limosa: 



The type specimen had a layer of living coral growing over a base of dead coral belong- 

 ing to the same species. Surface of corallum glomerate. 



Calices large, often 2 mm. in diameter, the small ones in depressions 1.25 mm. in diam- 

 eter. Although excavated, in comparison with their width they are rather shallow. 



The wall forms a distinct, sharp ridge, where the surface of the corallum has not been 

 damaged. It is decidedly and irregularly perforate near the edge, but in places it may 

 extend the length of a side of a calice as a continuous sharp edge. Mural denticles are coarse 

 and irregular. There are almost no small granulations, the surface usually having a more or 

 less glassy appearance. 



'Op. cil., p. 244. 'Bernard, Cat. Porites Indo-Pacific, p. 44, 1905. 



