MADREPORA. 75 
5 em. thick, convex and naked below. Branchlets digitiform, 6 to 7°5 em. long and 2°5 to 
3°75 cm. thick; erect, subterete, rarely furcate, subacute. Margin of colony with short 
and incipient branchlets. Axial corallites scarcely 2 mm. diameter, scarcely exsert. Radial 
corallites a little unequal, very crowded, a little prominent, compressed nariform or some- 
times dimidiate. Wall striate; aperture oblong ; star scarcely distinct. 
The specimen recorded by Ortmann agrees well with Dana’s figure, but the corallites 
are scarcely compressed. The colony is 20 to 24cm. wide, and forms a flattened convex 
clump with a broad incrusting base. The central branches are erect, digitiform, usually 
simple, but bear numerous budding corallites and very short proliferations rarely over 
5 mm. long and 4 mm. thick; they are 2°5 to 4.em. long and 1 to 1:5 em. diameter at the 
base. The marginal branches are not so stout, often forked, and extend obliquely, projecting 
3 to 35 mm. beyond the base. Axial corallites 2 mm. diameter, scarcely exsert ; wall 
moderately thick. Radial corallites small and very crowded, 1 mm. diameter ; thin-walled, 
more or less ascending, dimidiate, nariform, labellate or gutter-shaped, with a tapered apex, 
rarely tubular. Adjoining corallites are very unequal in length, but usually not over 2 mm., 
though on some of the branches a few may attain a length of 3mm. The proliferous 
corallites become completely tubular, and are 3 mm. or more in length. The basal parts of 
the branches bear immersed corallites, with arched nariform ones between, some of which 
have the wall thickened and hooked, Star of the radial corallites indistinct, usually only 
the directive septa are prominent. Corallum dense, but reticulate in section. Wall finely 
striate, echinulate below. The under surface of the marginal branches bears very short 
appressed and immersed corallites. 
The specimen referred to this species by Quelch differs only in the more unequal coral- 
lites from one of those referred by him to M. nasuta; both have ascending radial corallites, 
but may not really belong to this species. The corallites are compressed nariform to dimi- 
diate, with immersed or short corallites between, but are not so crowded as is shown in 
Dana’s figure. 
Indo-Pacific Ocean : Tahiti, Fiji, Mergui Archipelago. 
?a. Tahiti. . H.M.S. ‘Challenger.’ 82.5.1.6. (=WM. pazilligera, Quelch.) 
61. Madrepora digitifera. 
Madrepora digitifera, Dana, Zoophytes, p. 454; M.-Edwards & Haime, Coralliaires, t. iii. p. 153 (non 
Studer, MB. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1878, p. 530). 
Corallum broad, corymbose, with a solid circular base; nearly flat above. Branchlets 
crowded, digitiform, scarcely terete, subacute, 6 to 7°5 cm. long and 8 to 10 mm. thick, 
often proliferous. Axial corallites a little prominent, scarcely 2mm. diameter. Radial 
corallites crowded, divaricate, dimidiate, erect, not at all compressed, 1°5 mm. long ; lip 
rather thick, with scattered immersed corallites between ; all the corallites are obsolescent on 
the lower part of the branchlets. Wall of the corallites neatly striate; star of 6 narrow 
septa, the outer directive quite prominent. In the prominent corallites the lower part of the 
wall extends at right angles to the branch. (Dana.) 
