MALAY AKCHIPELACxO GONIOPOE^. 71 



to have been columnar (" elevee et lobee "). The calicles are large, 4-4-5 mm., polygonal ; the 

 w alls are an open reticulum on the top, more solid at the sides. The fusions of the septa ave 

 very conspicuous.* 



41. Goniopora China Sea (6,2. (PI. V. fig. 4 ; PI. XII. fig. 8.) 

 [Macclesfield Bank, 31 fathoms, coll. Bassett-Smith ; British Museum.] 



Description. — Corallum explanate, starting from a small centre of attachment, forms a 

 very thin leaf slightly crumpled and of quite irregular outline, with lobate edges, uniformly 

 about 1 mm. thick, everywhere supported by a stout wrinkled epitheca. Fresh growths seem 

 to start somewhere near the centre and to carrv' out the corallum beyond the old edge, but 

 apparently without seriously increasing the thickness. 



Calicles 2 • 5 mm. across, polygonal, flush with the surfaca The walls hardly raised ; the 

 septa of adjacent calicles sometimes meet across them, and allow free communication between 

 the interseptal loculi. The upper edges of the 24 septa are rows of fine uniform granules, 

 arranged in the typical formula, fusing in the typical manner. Between the three pairs of 

 stouter granules representing the six typical pali, the directives are continued right across the 

 calicles by a row of smaller granules ; these central granules completely fill up the fossa and 

 sometimes even suggest a slight central boss. The interseptal loculi are uniformly narrow, 

 and vary in length, owing to the fusions of the septa ; the peripheral ends of the septa are 

 frequently so thickened that the granules on their edges may appear double as if the septa 

 were again forking near the wall (cf. G. Paris Basin 2, p. 133). 



The tliin section is a close uniform reticulum without definite arrangement, except that 

 the vertical trabecular elements are slightly more pronounced than the horizontal. The colour 

 of the unbleached stock is sepia. The details of the skeleton are best seen on the dead and 

 bleached surface. 



This is a very extreme form of Goniopora, and owing to its habit might be easily mis- 

 taken for a smooth Porites. The size of its calicles, with the 24 septa arranged according- 

 to the typical formula, show that it belongs to this genus. It differs from Goniopora 

 N. W. Australia 3 (see PI. IV. fig. 1) in being much thinner, and in having calicles quite 

 flush with the surface, and having no fossa. The granxilar character of the surface is 

 obviously due in both forms to the exigencies of the case. In such shallow caUcles passage 

 between the vertical elements of the skeleton must be free and open. Both these interest- 

 ing forms were discovered by Dr. Bassett-Smith. 



a. Zool. Dept. 92. 10. 17. 96. 



Lords of the Admiralty. 



In the earlier drafts of this catalogue I called this coral " Gonioi)ora jwitiformis," but that 

 name would be equally suitable to the next form and also to Goniopora K W. Australia 2 

 abo\'e referred to, and also to G. Maldives 1 (see PL VII. fig. 1). 



* When I visited Paris 1 \vm\ not discovered the typical septal formula of the genus, and hence 

 made no reference to it in niv notes. 



