DESCEIPTIO^'S OF SPECIES. 199 



Madrepora punctulata Conrad. 

 1847. Madrepora punctulata Conrad. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Vol. Ill, p. 298. 



The origiual description is : "Cyliiidi'ical ramose, with prominent cells; 

 whole surface ornamented with fine, equal, punctate, impressed lines. 

 Diameter, one-third. Locality, St. Matthews Parish, Orangeburg, South 

 Carolina. Vanuxera. A species highly ornamented by the punctate ver- 

 micular lines. It occurs much larger than the specimen described." 



This is all that I have been able to find concerning this species. 



Dendrophyllia l^vis Lonsdale. 

 PI. XXII, fig. 21. 



1845. Bendropliyllia lewis Lonsdale. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. Loud., Vol. I, p. 516, 



figured. 

 1860. Dendrophyllia Icevis Milne-Edwards and Haime. Hist. Nat. des Corall., Vol. Ill, 



p. 123. 



Branches with a persistent, central, lamelliform structure, and many lateral 

 shoots scarcely projecting beyond the thickened surface of the stem ; lamelhi' numer- 

 ous, unequal, about ten principal plates in the side shoots; cast of the outer surface 

 generally smooth, sometimes finely ribbed in young branches or near the extremity of 

 the shoots. 



In the specimens of the coral ■which were examined, the whole of the original 

 substance bad been removed, and even casts of the central structure were partially 

 wanting. The most illustrative portion is represented in the woodcut. Of tlie nature 

 of the thickened matter in which the lateral shoots were originally embedded, no 

 opinion could be formed, except that it was jirobably very solid or similar to that of 

 Oculiuic, there being lio vestiges of casts of capillary tubes or of a reticulated struc- 

 ture, though abundant proofs of the matter having been penetrated by burrowing 

 animals. The signs of lamella- in transverse sections of the central part were very 

 faint, but sufficient to show that the broadest were twelve in number, and that the 

 intermediate ones varied from one to four. The surface of this inner cast was slightly 

 traversed by lines indicating the vertical range of the broadest lamellie, and by traces 

 of iri-egularly disposed striie. Between the cast and the base of the side shoots was 

 an extremely narrow space, proving that there was no structural iuterblending of 

 lamellie and main stem. The shoots at the inferior termination were obliquely conical, 

 but they soon attained their full dimensions, so far as could be inferred from the speci- 

 mens, the greatest diameter being about one tenth of an inch or two-thirds that of the 

 central cast — a disproportion observable iu recent Dendrophylliie. Their range was 

 limited also to less than a line. The general outer surface was apparently smooth, but 

 uneven as in some Oculin;e; and the cast of it bore traces of parasitic Biyozoa, addi- 

 tional indication to that of the numerous burrowing animals that the polypes had 

 perished some time previously to the specimen being inclosed in its matrix. 



Localities, Wilmington, Shell Bluff. ' 



' Lon»Uale, loc. cit. 



