1890.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF I'HILADKLl'IU A. 307 



This is the only Mceandriua that was found in these waters, and 

 I searched in vain among our specimens for M. hthyrinthica — at 

 least, for that form which Dana identifies with Ellis's description and 

 figure. I have little doubt that Ellis himself included in his species 

 the form which is now referred to M. sfrigosa, but there certainly 

 appears to be a well-marked difference between the two species. 

 The upright and very thin calicular walls, and the closely packed 

 septa (45-50 to the inchj, plainly identify the Vera Cruz species with 

 Dana's M. strigosa. I found both species in the Bermudian waters. 



Diploria cerebriformis, Lam. 



This species is found in close association with the last, which in 

 general habit and in coloring it also resembles. Both species are very 

 numerously represented in all stages of development, and they build 

 up a perfect pavement of coral — a pavement of giant cobble-stones, 

 as it were. Their weathered masses are seen everywhere in the old 

 stone constructions of Vera Cruz, where they constitute the true 

 piedra de nmcar. 



Both species of brain-coral rise to within a very short distance of 

 the surface, and we nowhere found them to descend below about 25 

 feet ; usually they keep within a zone of some 5 — 15 feet. They 

 occur closely packed, and where largely developed, in a way monop- 

 olize a given area, to the exclusion of the upright Madreporaria. 

 Oculina sji. ? 



r obtained a fragment of a species of this genus, but unfortunatelv 

 it was misplaced before I had a' chance to determine its specific 

 characters. 



Cladocora (Caryophyllia) flexuosa, Liiuiiuck, Anim. vSans. Vert., 2J. Ed., II, p. 352. 

 Ellis ami Soliinder. ''Zoophytes," pi. 32, fig. 1. (no description). Lamouroux, 

 Expos, Method, Polypiers p. 49, pi. 32, fig. 1. 



I identify with this species a form that is found in l)unclied masses 

 on the bases ofsomeof the Majandrinas and gorgonians, and agrees 

 well with the figures of Ellis and Solander, and with the descrip- 

 tions furnished by the authorities above quoted and by Dana 

 (" Zoophytes," p, 381). Lamarck doubtfully refers the species to 

 the Indian Ocean, but Dana, more <;orrectIy, believes it to be AVest 

 Indian. Verrill, in his synonymic list of species described by Dana, 

 api>ended to the latter's " Corals and Coral Islands," doubtfully 

 identifies the form in question with Cladocora stellaria, of Edwards 

 and Haime (Annales des Sciences Naturelles Ser. 3, Zoology, XI, p. 



