TURBINARI^ CiLOMERAT.E. 



Species 50. Turbinaria palifera. 



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Astrea palifera, Lamarck, Anim. sans Vert., ii. (1816) p. 262. 



Gemmipara palifera, Blainville, Manuel d'Actinol. (183-i), p. 387. 



Gemmipm-a palifera, Dana, Zoophytes (1848), p. 409; Atlas, pi. xxi.K. figs. 2, 2a, 26. 



Turhimria palifera, Milne-Edwards, Les Coralliaires, iii. (18G0) p. 167. 



Descnption.—CovaWmi massive, subglobose, and lobed. Calicles much crowded on 

 cylindrical prominences 2-16 to 6-5 mm. high, 3-25 mm. in diameter, somewhat smaller at 

 the summit ; the margin of the aperture is thick and stout. Septa (ca. 30) " even." Fossa 

 2*5 mm. deep, small, and flat at the bottom. 



This is a very remarkable coral and deserves to be closely studied. A glomerate 

 Turbinarian (see Dana's figure, ' Zoophytes,' Atlas, pi. xxLx. fig. 2), with tall projecting caUcles, 

 nearly all of the same size, appearing all to radiate from a common centre, without any 

 appearance of a growing creeping edge with non-protruding calicles, is very difficult to 

 understand. If a glomerate Turbinarian at all, it is certainly a very aberrant type. 

 Some of the specimens collected were "lobed and subdivided," one was 6 inches across and 

 4 inches thick. A section through a specimen would be most instructive in showing the 

 line of its departure from the type. 



The specimens described by Dana were from Fiji, where Turbinaria stdlulata with the 

 nearly immersed calicles also occurs, and in both cases, the polyps are described as yellow or 

 yellowish. Until we have further information, we are driven to the conclusion that 

 T. palifera is an extreme development of the glomerate type with protuberant calicles as in 

 T. glohidaris. Yet this assumption is far from satisfactory. 



There is unfortunately no specimen in the National Collection. 



Species 51. Turbinaria parvistella. 

 Turbinaria parvistclla, Saville-Kent, P.Z.S., 1871, p. 285. 



Description. — Corallum massive, convex. 



Calicles sparse, not protuberant ; apertures level with the surface, small, ca. 2-5 mm. 

 Septa 12 to 18, of equal size. Columella spongy. 

 Ccenenchyma " abundant," very porous. 



The type specimen of the coral is in the O.xford Museum, and a fragment is said to have 

 been deposited in the National Collection, but there is no record in the Register of its 

 having been presented, and it is not included among the Turbinarians at present in the 

 Collection. 



Locality not recorded. 



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