FI^ORIDAN PORITES. 73 



58. Porites Florida 3- (/'• Florida; tertia.) 

 [Florida Eeet's, coll. Agassiz ; ? U.S. National Museum, Washington.] 

 Syn. Porites furcata {partim) Pourtales {mm Lamarck), torn, cit., pi. xvi. figs. 13 to 20. 



The following two descriptions are taken solely from the beautiful figures cited. 



Description. — The corallum lises as a cylindrical, but gradually thickening stem, about 

 1 cm. thick. This divides at small angles into short, straight, though slightly swollen, branch- 

 lets, which may, or may not, again divide. The coral dies rapidly away, tlie living layer being 

 only 2 • 5 to 3 cm. deep. The tips of the branchlets are round and blunt. 



The calicles appear about 1 25 mm. in diameter, and fairly conspicuous. The walls are 

 represented without any clear, sharp, median tlu-ead, but as an elegant filigree as if due to 

 innumerable rounded incisions in flakes. The septa show the same characters, only thinning 

 away towards their tips. Each of the peripheral margins of the interseptal loculi is thus not 

 a single curve but a succession of curves separated by sharp points : similar points run 

 irregularly out along the septa. Where the septa terminate, a ring of bushy pali continues 

 this filigree character, fainter and fainter, into the fossa. 



There can be no doubt that the trained eye of the artist of this beautiful figure has given 

 accurately the character of the skeleton as he saw it, and it is sufficiently remarkable to justify 

 us in saying that such a form cannot be regarded as a mere variation of Porites furcata 

 Lamarck. There is no specimen like it in the National Collection. 



59. Porites Florida 4. {P. Florida: quarta.) 



[Florida Eeefs, coll. Agassiz ; ? U.S. National Museum, Washington.] 



Syn. Porites furcata (purtim) Pourtales {7ion Lamarck), tom. cit., pi. xii. fig. 7. 



Description. — The corallum forms short, rather expanding tufts. The stem forks at wide 

 angles, but the lower prong may not develop, its place being marked as a smooth swelling or 

 thickening of the branch, which appears to bend upwards above it. Stems and branches, 

 though varying greatly, show little diminution in average thickness, being about 1 cm., and 

 the living layer 3 to 4 cm. deep. 



This description is based upon the original figure above refen-ed to. There is no figure of 

 the calicles. 



The classing of this with the specimen last described as both variations of the same 

 species, and that species Lamarck's furcata, is only possible when our units are imaginary 

 species, the elasticity of wliich is practically unlimited. There can be very little doubt that 



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