TURBINARI/E GLOMERAT.E. 65 



Species 48. Turbinaria marmorea. 

 Eehberg, Abh. Naturwiss. Hamburg, xii. (1892) p. 43, pi. iii. figs. 2 and 3. 



Description. — Coralliim composed of very large, broad, and flat or folded leaves, which 

 are very thick, 2 cm., but suddenly get thin at the margin. 



Calicles oval and small, 5 to 10 mm. from one another, immersed or hardly projecting. 

 Septa (average 16) ; columella distinctly long ; the septa slightly dentate ; interseptal loculi 

 pronounced petaloid. 



Coenenchyma sharply bounded peripherally, solid and marble-like, fissured, and round the 

 calicles as if regularly burrowed through by worms ; the under side is spongy but compact. 



Two specimens of tliis coral, one from the Palau Islands and one from Ponape, are 

 described by Kehberg under the above specific name. He states that they had been originally 

 provisionally placed by Briiggemann under T. cinerascens, Esper. Eehberg's specimens, to 

 judge from the aspect of two calicles and the surface of the surrounding crcnenchyma, as 

 figured by him, appear sufficiently distinct. Unfortunately, there are no sjiecimens in the 

 National Collection. 



Judging from Piehberg's figure (pi. iii. figs. 2 and 3), which shows the great thickness 

 of the ccenenchyma below the layer of intercommunication of the polyp-cavities, coupled with 

 his description of the rapid thinning of the corallum near the margin, I conclude that this was 

 a horizontally gi-owing form apparently belonging to the tabulate group. On the other hand, 

 Picliberg speaks of a leaf 35 cm. " high," appearing to assume that its original position was 

 upright, and he further compares it to Dana's T. bratisica. For these reasons, I at first 

 thought it belonged to the foliate group. 



From the size of the single fronds, Eehberg concludes that a stock might be several 

 metres in circumference. The type is in the Hamburg Museum of Natui'al History. 



Group VII.— TURBINARIJl GLOMERATE. 



Turhinarians in which the growth in thickness which characterises the last group is so great that thty form 

 spherical or hemispherical irmsses, the margins hanging down and creeping round former grouilis. 



Species 49. Turbinaria stellulata.* (PI. XX.) 



Astrea stellulata, Lamarck, Aiiim. sans Vert., ii. (1.S1G) p. 2G1. 



Astreopora stellulata, Blainville, Manuel d'Actinol. (1834), p. 383, pi. Ix. figs. 4 and 4a. 



Astreeapora stellulata, Dana, Zoophytes (1848), p. 416. 



Turbinaria stelltiMa, Quelch,t Chal. Rep., xvi. (1886) p. 168. 



• Eehberg (Abh. Naturwiss. Ver. Hamb., xii. (1892) p. 44) has suggested the name T. hemi- 

 sphcErica as a substitute for T. stellulata. This name might well be applied to some of the more 

 perfectly hemispherical forms now grouped under the general heading stellulata. The term would 

 not apply to all the forms assumed by Glomerate Turhinarians (of. PL XX.). 



f Milne-Edwards was the first ('Les Coralliaires,' p. 167) to suggest that the Astreopora 

 stellulata of Blainville might ho a tnio Turbinarian. This suggestion was adopted by Quelch in 

 his ' Challenger ' Report on the Reef Corals. 



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