98 MADREPOKARIA, 



sloping sides of the corallum. In the interstices are many full-sized calicles, either im- 

 mersed or with thin, membranous or lattice-like walls. On both thin and thick walls, 

 the trabecular elements well developed ; the costal echinula?, which are not well developed 

 on the thin-walled calicles and tend to end bluntly, are, however, short, stout, with jagged 

 tips on the taller and thicker calicles. This change in the echinulse in the lateral and lower 

 regions, alters in these parts the whole aspect of the corallum. Septa not conspicuous ; two 

 cycles, the primaries delicate, not meeting in the centre. 



Young calicles appear in the valleys. 



The coenenchyma is chiefly remarkable for the conspicuous development of the inter- 

 stitial porous floors ; the echinulce being comparatively feebly developed. Only immediately 

 round the tall echinulate calicles and on the under surface are the synapticular floors 

 obscured. 



This, which was the only Astrreoporan found by Mr. Saville-Kent on the west coast of 

 Australia, and must be considered a great rarity, is, unfortunately, only represented by one 

 specimen. It is of a bright yellow colour, and in its whole appearance distinct from all the 

 other representatives of the genus in the National Collection. In horizontal outline, it is an 

 oval, 11 cm. across, 12 cm. long, and it stands about 8 cm. high. Underneath it is filled up 

 with a dead mass, probably of an earlier growth, which looks as if it had been roUed over. 

 The sections show the synapticular elements of the coenenchyma well developed in regular 

 continuous floors. 



The corallum is perforated by a few of the delicate red worm tubes opening on the 

 surface, which are so marked in Astraopora gracilis (p. 94) ; but in this case, the growth of 

 the corallum seems to have been injuriously affected immediately round the tubes, whereas 

 the former species seems to be completely adapted to the Annelidan intruder. 



a. King's Sound, West Australia. SaviUe-Kent Coll. (Type.) 



Species 14. Astraeopora profunda. (PI. XXX. ; PI. XXXIII. fig. 20.) 



Aslrceopora puhinaria, Dana (non Lamarck), Zooph., p. 415, pl. xxix. figs. 3, 3a, 36, 3c. 

 Astrceopora profunda, Verrill, Appendix to Dana's Corals and Coral Islands, 1875, p. 333. 

 Aslrceopora p-ofunda, Quelch, Chall. Rep. Reef Corals, 1S8G, p. 169. 



Description. — Corallum glomerate, often globose, " incrusting," sometimes with an un- 

 dulating surface. 



Calicles nearly hemispherical and continuous at base, sometimes nearly obsolete, at 

 others conoido-hemispherical, crowded here, and distant there, 1 • 5 mm. diameter. 



Coenenchyma very porous, " pulvinato-echinulate " (sic Dana). Fiji Islands. 



There is one specimen in the Collection which agrees fairly well with this description. 

 It is a long, flattened oval mass growing round (" incrusting ") a previous growth which has 

 been rolled over. There appear to have been four growths, the mass having been overturned 

 during the second. 



