160 MADREPOEAEIA. 



151. Goniopora .r/, (PI. VIII. fig. 6 ; PI. XIV, fig. 4) 



Description. — Corallum forms small, rounded, oval or columnar knobs. 



Calicles large, 3-4 mm., shallow, gaping, varying in depth, some mere concave de- 

 pressions, others with perpendicular sides but with concave floors. The walls vary in 

 thickness, and are a very spiky reticulum, the meshes of which are smooth round holes. 

 This reticulum tends to surge up wherever it is at all thickened, e.g. at the angles. Three 

 cyles of septa arranged in the typical manner ; they are wavy, and tend to throw out sharp 

 spike-like synapticulfe laterally. Seen from above the free upper parts of the septa taper to 

 the finest points. In many parts of the stock the large columella is in sharp contrast with 

 the rest of the calicle in texture, being a reticulum of thin flakes mostly parallel with the 

 surface, and perforated with round holes. Here and there the septa run out over the surface 

 of the columella, and form at times very jagged spiky knobs representing the pali. 



The single specimen of this coral is a small column or knol) attached to a SjMndi/lus ; it 

 has been so attacked by foreign organisms, boring molluscs, sponges, etc., that its growth is 

 perhaps not normal. In the type of growth, and in the general character of the calicles, it 

 resembles Goniopora Philippines 1, see p. 67. In the melting down of the whole texture 

 into a reticulum it comes very near G. Samoa 1, but its calicles are larger, deeper, and more 

 pronounced. Further, as in G. Philippines 1, the radial symmetry of the calicles is very 

 marked, whereas this is not the case in G. Samoa 1. A peculiar feature in this coral is 

 worth noting : the texture of the walls is much stouter than that of the rest of the calicle ; the 

 septa taper away, and the reticulum of the columella is thin and delicate. (Table IV. E. p. 181.) 



a. Zool. Dept. 1902. 9. 9. 17. 



152. Goniopora a; ^. 



Madrepo^-a intersepta, Esper. Pflanz. Suppl. I. (1797) p. 99, pi. 79. 



Dcscrvption. — Corallum forms rounded knobs closely enveloping the tips of other corals, 

 without free edges, the living layer growing close round the base. The calicles are polygonal, 

 walls are low, fairly thick and flat topped, consisting of a single row of pronounced septal 

 strise. The 24 septa appear to fuse together. An irregular group of pali, apparently rising 

 from a columellar tangle, occupies a considerable area in the middle of the shallow calicle. 



This coral, from the " East Indian Seas," is certainly a Goniopora, and in the method of 

 its growth, and in the character of its calicles, it recalls Goniopora Great Barrier Reef 3, only 

 the calicles were apparently somewhat smaller. It is impossible to follow Milne-Edwards and 

 Haime in making it one of the types of Stephanoemvia (Nat. Hist. Cor., ii. (1857) p. 265). 



