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REPORT ON THE REEF-CORALS. a7 
present, and is well developed towards the basal parts as a thick, pointed style placed 
above the small point of union of the septa. 
Two specimens were obtained—one attaining a very great size. 
Locality.—Samboangan, Philippines. 
Family PoctLLoporiIp&. 
Genus 1. Seriatopora, Lamarck. 
Seriatopora, Lamarck, Hist. Anim. sans Vert., ii. p. 282, 1816. 
53 Milne-Edwards and Haime, Cor., iii. p. 311. 
Duncan, Rev. Madrep., p. 47. 
An altogether new light has lately been thrown upon the structure of this genus 
by the researches of Professor Moseley.’ It appears that the presence of a pair of deep 
lateral pits in the calicle must be regarded as an essential character in the definition 
of the genus as based on the corallum. As seen in several Challenger specimens, the 
degree of development of the septa, and the relation of these to each other and to the 
lateral pits, seem to vary considerably, not only in different species, but even in the 
different parts of the same specimen. Thus in Seriatopora stellata the six primary 
septa are large, well developed and exsert, and usually regularly arranged, so as to 
form, equal interseptal chambers. In many calicles secondary septa are developed in the 
distal lateral chambers. The deep pits are always situated in the median lateral 
chambers, and no pits are to be found in either the distal or proximal lateral chambers. 
In the Seriatopora conferta, in the calicles on the basal part of the corallum, a 
condition closely similar to this is met with, while the secondaries are more developed ; 
but in the calicles towards the apical parts of the corallum, where the fossa is very 
deep and the distal margin of the calicle arched, the septa are very slightly developed 
and often rudimentary, while the deep pits are situated at the proximal portion of the 
fossa and not at or towards the median portion. In the Seriatopora crassa, the septa 
are much less developed, but the proximal and distal lateral chambers in many of 
the calicles are much deepened and present an approach to the condition found in 
Stylophora, in which genus the six primary interseptal spaces are all deep. In 
this species, however, the proximal lateral chambers are often subdivided by secondary 
septa. 
From those species of Stylophora with prominent calicles, in which a marked 
bilateral symmetry is present, species of Servatopora, such as Seriatopora stellata, can 
be distinguished only by the presence of the two deep lateral pits. 
Twelve species of this genus are in the collection. 
1 Notes on the Structure of Seriatopora, &¢., Quart. Journ. Mier. Sci., new ser., vol. xxii., 1882, p. 390. 
(ZOOL, CHAL. EXP.—PART XLYI.—1886.) 728 
