PORITES FROM NO RECORDED LOCALITY. 119 



acquire their typical calicles, apparently only with their typical growth-forms. Hence the 

 relationship of young colonies can only be decided either by direct observation or by the 

 discovery of a series of stages. 



a. Large specimen with very young colony. Zool. Dept. 99. 3. 2. 8. 



113. Porites x. 11. {Pontes incertw sedis undcdina.) (PI. VII. fig. 3.) 



[British Museum.] 



Descriftion.—T\xe. corallum is explanate, encrusting and varying in thickness from 2 to 

 6 mm. with curled up edges. Fresh layers creep over previous growths not always in close 

 contact. The complete form is unknown. 



The caUcles with undefined outUnes, distinguishable only by the central fossa which may 

 open flush with the surface or at the bottom of a faint depression. The walls are broad and 

 flat, and covered with an even layer of star-like or very jagged granules, which are fairly 

 uniform in size and distance apart. They appear to be the echinulate tips and edges of 

 otherwise smooth erect flakes. The septa are not visible under these granules, nor are they 

 indicated round the mouth of the fossa by any pronounced radial arrangements of the latter, 

 although what are apparently interseptal loculi radiate outwards irregularly from the fossa and 

 bend away among the open spaces between the granules. Close round the fossa the granules 

 are sometimes slightly larger than elsewhere, but they seldom form any traceable ring of pali. 

 When, however, this occurs, the usual paUc formula can be made out, though incomplete. 

 A distinct columellar tubercle is also sometimes present, at others the fossa is a deep round 

 hole. The texture revealed in vertical section is very open, being built up of thin, regular, 

 vertical trabecule rather far apart, with thin, regular, horizontal junctions. The rich, warm, 

 buff colour extends about 1 mm. below the surface. 



This coral is represented only by a fragment. From the specimens with which I found it 

 associated in the collection, I judge it to have been a Pacific Island form, and one of 

 Mr Gardiner's collection (? from Funafuti). As a mere fragment without definite locahty, it 

 would have been hardly worth keeping, but its characters are so far unique. There is nothing 

 I can recall like its rich development of beautiful surface granules obscuring the cahcular 



skeleton. 



Zool. Dept. 190(3. 1. 1. 15. 



114. Porites x. 12. {Porites inccrlcc sedis duodccima.) (PI. VII. fig. 4.) 



[British Museum.] 



Description.— The. corallum is a small, smooth, irregular, cap-shaped growth, encrusting 

 previous layers; the creeping edges bending under, enveloping, and binding together a mass 

 of sand and small shells. 



