158 MADREPORARIA. 



the columellar tangle a flaky mass with large oval pores. In transverse section the interseptal 

 loculi are seen to he large, but to be so irregular as hardly to appear in rings. 



This Goniopora stands quite alone in its structural features, in the texture of the growing 

 top which appears as if made of glassy threads, and in the septa which project from the sides 

 of the deep calicles as hair-like glassy points. This glassiness, so different from the usual 

 opaque character of the Madreporarian skeleton, deserves noting. Cf MontiiMra friabUis, 

 Vol. III. p. 1.38, also from some unknown locality. 



In Dr. Briiggemann's MS. Catalogue this specimen was called Porites limosa Dana,* 

 evidently omng to the general resemblance in its method of growth to that figured by Dana. 

 This growth-form is not easy to imravel. It may perhaps be regarded as an irregular 

 cluster of thick columnar growths, the columns being of irregular outline. A considerable 

 number of large worm-tubes open on tlie surface. 



There is one large mass («) with a fissure wliich partially divides it into three lobes, and 

 two fragments (which fit together) of another mass. 



«, 6, c. Zool. Dept. 56. 12. 18. 25. 



149. Goniopora xd. (PI. VIII. fig. 5.) 



Description. — The corallum forms oval masses, with smooth upper surface, the adherent 

 edges creeping closely round. 



Calicles polygonal, vary greatly in size, average about 2 • 5 mm., with occasional double 

 calicles 4 mm. across, conical or funnel-shaped, about 3 mm. deep, some at the top much 

 deeper. Walls single, but coarse, thick and zigzag, very denticulate along their upper edges, 

 septa in two cycles, very stout. Round the margin the 12 coarse thick septa project equally, 

 but below the surface the rather thicker and coarsely-toothed primaries gradually slope 

 inwards, and form very deep down the inconspicuous central tangle. There is no trace of the 

 typical septal formula, and the radial arrangement is irregular. In the shallower lateral 

 calicles the inner edges of the primaries seem to thicken, and seen from above simulate a 

 rosette of pali, which are sometimes actually present, but they rise from the edges of the septa 

 and not from a columellar tangle. With a pocket-lens faint traces of tertiary septa may be 

 seen as slight prominences from the outer margins of the inter&eptal loculi. These are more 

 fully developed in the large double (?) calicles. 



There is a single massive oval specimen of this coral, about 9 cm. long by 6 cm. across. 

 It appears to have been growing rather irregularly, as if it had been roUed over on to its side, 

 so that the last living layer does not fit exactly over the one which preceded it. The coral is 

 pecuhar for the immense thickness and solidity of its skeletal elements as compared with the 

 small size of the calicles. The thick prominent primaries sloping deep down into the conical 

 calicles and the absence of a distinct columellar floor form a type of calicle with which we are 

 already familiar (cf. G. Loyalty Islands 1, p. 42). 



* Cf. Dana's figure, Zoophytes, Atlas, pi. Iv. fig. 2. 



