Invertebrate Gallery of the Indian Museum. 29 



acter is that both the walls of the coral-cups and the 

 branches are spongy and porous or lace-like. The Per- 

 forate Madreporaria are divided into three families — the 

 Eupsam?nida;, the Madrepcridx, and the Poritidse. 



1st Family Eupsammidse. — The Eupsammidai are mostly 

 small simple corals, but some of them, e.cr., DendropJiyl- 

 lia, form colonies. They are represented in Case 12 by 

 the following genera from the rocky parts of the coasts of 

 India, Burma, and Ceylon : Balanophylh'a, Eupsammia 

 Heteropsatnmta, Dendrophyllia^ Ccenopsam?7tia, Astro- 

 psammz'a, and Rhodopsammia. 



2nd Family Madreporidas. — The Madrepores are the 

 typical corals of the reefs of all parts of the world, where 

 they occur as large tree-like colonies of singular beauty. 

 A large number of species of the genera Madrepora and 

 Turbinaria are shown in Cases 9-12, all of them being 

 from the reefs and islands of the Indian Seas 



3rd Family Poritidse. — In this family not only the 

 coral-walls, but the septa also, are porous and lace-like : 

 the corals are always compound, and the individual coral- 

 lites are very small. The colonies are usually in the form 

 of tufts or boulders, and are very common constituents of 

 coral-reefs. Numerous species, from the reefs of the 

 Indian Islands, of the following genera, are exhibited in 

 Case 8 '.—Porites, Synarsea, Goniopora, Alveopora {Favo- 

 sitipora), and Montipora. 



In connexion with these exhibits of corals, it must be 

 remembered that almost all Museum specimens are sim- 

 ply denuded and dried skeletons. The appearance of the 

 living coral is well seen in the wax models of y^.y/r^;/^'^^- 

 (in Case 12), and of Caryophyllia smithii (in Case 16), 

 and can be fairly well understood by examination of the 

 spirit specimens of Bathyactis stephanus (in Case 13), and 

 of Flabellumjaponicum^Flabellum lacimatum,znd Rhizo- 

 trochus crateriformis {\x\ C3iSe\G), where the spirit-pre- 

 'jprved specimens, with the soft parts intact though much 



