CORALS FROM MURRAY, COCOS-KEELING, AND FANNING ISLANDS. 121 

 Columella small, composed of coarse trabecuk 



Dissepiments nearly horizontal, about I mm. apart. 



Reproduction by equal or subequal fission, opposi e septa meeting across the columella. 



Station, Murray Island.— Southeast reef, line I, 1,600 feet from shore. 



Milne Edwards and Haime divide Cceloria into two groups, viz: § A with long 

 and § AA with short calicular series. The second group is subdivided into § C, 

 "walls thin," and § CC "wall a little thick." § C contains C. dadalea, C. sinensis, 

 C. stricta, and C. astrceijormis. C. dcedalea and C. astreiformis are represented in 

 the U. S. National Museum by specimens from several localities in the Indian and 

 Pacific Oceans, and C. sinensis and C. stricta by specimens from the southern Phil- 

 ippines. The specimen from Murray Island accords with the marginal part of a 

 Philippine specimen which I have referred to C. stricta. On the top of the corallum 

 of the latter specimen the series are somewhat wider, longer, and deeper, and the 

 walls are thin and perforate. The septa are more crowded than in C. sinensis, as 

 Milne Edwards and Haime have stated. 



Distribution.— Straits of Malacca; southern Philippines; Torres Strait. 



Genus HYDNOPHORA Fischer de Waldheim. 



1807. Hydnophora Fischer de Waldheim, Mus. Demidoff, vol. 3, p. 295. ' P'^te (reference taken from 



Fischer de Waldheim's Oryctographie, etc.). 

 1810 Hydnophora Fischer de Waldheim, Recherches sur les Hydnophores, pp. 7-13, I plate. 

 1830-1837. Hydnophora Fischer de Waldheim, Oryctographie du gouvernement de Moscou, p. 155- 

 1857. Hydnophora Milne Edwards and Haime, Hist. nat. Corall., vol. 2, p. 418. 

 1901. Hydnophorella Delage and Herouard, Traite de Zool. concrete, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 62S. 



Type species: Hydnophora demidovii Fischer de Waldheim = Madrepora exesa 

 Pallas. 



As Fischer says, regarding his H. demidovii, in his "Oryctographie," "Ce beau 

 polypier vivant, des Indes orientales, est le type du genre," it is astonishing that 

 Delage and Herouard should propose a new generic name for the type species, 

 because Fischer erroneously referred some fossil corals to the genus. Fischer s 

 figures of H. demidovii in his "Oryctographie" (plate 32) are excellent, and Hydno- 

 phora is one of the most securely established of coral genera. 



Hydnophora exesa (Pallas). 

 Plate 47, figures 2, la, specimen from Murray Island; plate 48, figure 1, specimen from southern Philippine Islands. 

 i8<7 Hydnophora exesa Milne Edwards and Haime, Hist. nat. Corall., vol. 2, p. 420. 

 ,874. Hydnophora contignatio Klunzinger, Korall. Roth. Meer., pt. 3, p. *2 plate* figs. 2, 3; plate 9, figs , :,,-,-. 

 ,906. Hydnophora conlignaUo von Marenzeller, Denkschr. k. k. Ak. W.ss. W.en, vol. 80, p. 81, plate z } , 



fig. 82a; plate 24, fig. 82. _ 



1907. Hydnophorella exesa Bedot, Madreporaires d'Amboine, p. 199. P^te 25, figs. 123-129. 



The identification is based on figures published by von Marenzeller and Bedot. 



A single small but perfect corallum was collected by Dr. Mayer 



Station, Murray Island.— Rttf flat, northwest side of island, about 300 feet 

 from shore; water about 2 inches at low tide; hard bottom. 



Milne Edwards and Haime pointed out that II. exesa, H. demulofii, and H. 

 polygonata all probably represent stages or growth facies of one species, and that 

 the difference between //. demidoffi and H. lobata is slight Stanley Gardiner has 

 discussed the relations of these forms, 1 and refers H. tenella Quelch to the synonymy 

 of H exesa. Von Marenzeller figures a specimen which he refers to H contignatio 

 (Forskal), of which, according to Klunzinger, //. ehrenbergn Milne Edwards and 

 Haime is a synon ym. Bedot further discusses the relations of the forms. Present 



'Proc. Zool. Soc. London for 1899, pp. 745, 74^- 



