772 J. STANLEY GARDINER. 



less. Walls exceedingly thin at edge, sometimes fenestrated or not completely formed, thicker 

 below but except at the edge of the colony not more than 1 mm., covered by the continuous 

 unnotched, rather pointed and strongly toothed, exsert (1 — 2 mm.) ends of the septa. Latter, 

 16 — 26 (average 21) in number, generally hollowed where they pass through the walls, rather 

 thick, with rough granular or spiny sides, a few coarse, pointed teeth, about half ending 

 against the axial fossa with great, thickened and pointed teeth, or all variants to a thick, 

 perpendicular edge or thick teeth merging into the columella. Latter ^ to |^ diameter of 

 calice, formed by the anastomosis of flattened trabeculae from half to two-thirds of the septa 

 (as many as can crowd round the fossa), commonly ending above in more or less flattened 

 rods. In section, walls almost solid save for spaces due to the hollow septa, endothecal dis- 

 sepiments very oblique, 30° to wall, thin, 1 — 2 mm. apart. 



Locality. Hulule ; reef-flat to east. The species approaches closest perhaps to F. halicora 

 (Ehrb.), but the wall, largely formed by the lateral fusions of the hollow septa, is exceedingly 

 remarkable. 



XII. Genus Goniastraea. 



Ed. and H., ii. p. 444, and Gard., p. 746. 



By the removal of G. halicora I have restricted the genus to forms of which the 

 theca of neighbouring calices completely fuse, and which have true pali, not mere paliform 

 teeth. 



The genus is of little importance fi-om its number of species, but possesses in G. 

 retiformis a form of wide distribution and great importance on the coral reefs of the 

 Maldives, and so far as I saw, of still greater abundance off Ceylon, both at Tondimanar 

 and also at Weligama. 



30. Goniastraea retiformis (Lmk.). Klz., p. 35, iv. 5, G. exiraia Gard., p. 747. 



I refer fourteen specimens to this species, which I have no doubt Klunzinger has 

 identified coiTectly. The columella, which he does not describe, appears in some of the 

 specimens like a small solid mass in the centre of the calice, but in others is clearly made 

 up of a dense mass of trabeculae from the paliform septa. My specimens vary somewhat 

 in the size of the calice, averaging about 4 by 3 mm., the longest not as yet showing 

 division being 6 by 4 mm. The pali average in different specimens 7, 8, 9 or 10, but 8 is 

 the mode; occasionally they are not present as upstanding rods, but yet are clearly repre- 

 sented by the much thickened edges of the septa. G. eximia from Fiji, Rotuma, etc. is 

 the same species, but the mode of its pali is 9 or 10, and its appearance in section- is 

 rather more delicate than in most of my .specimens. 



Locality. This golden-green coloured species is common on the outer slope, occasionally 

 occurs on the reef-flat in small heads, and is abundant in the lagoon both at Minikoi and 

 in the Maldives. It often forms immense masses, which on the shallow flat behind the 

 boulder zone die in the centre but spread linearly, the blocks in growth resembling massive 

 Porites. Two specimens came from the passage into Hulule. 



31. Goniastraea solida (Forsk.). (PI. LXII. fig. 28.) Ed. and H., ii. p. 455. 



A specimen agi-ees in every respect with the description of this species, which is not, 

 as Klunzinger supposed, synonymous with G. pectinata or G. favus. It resembles the first 



