144 MADREPORARIA. 
proliferations is quite indistinct, usually only the directive septa are recognizable. Corallum 
very porous ; surface spongy-reticulate, becoming regularly reticulate below ; wall striate and 
fenestrated, margin not rounded. 
Pacifie Ocean. 
a-c. Samoa Islands. Rev. S. J. Whitmee [P.]. 75. 10. 2. 18 to 20. (Types.) 
148. Madrepora scherzeriana. 
Heteropora hemprichii, Haeckel (non Ehrenberg), Arab. Korallen, pl. iii. fig. 6. 
Madrepora scherzeriana, Briggemanun, Abhandl. naturw. Ver. Bremen, 1877, Bd. v. p. 397, pl. viii. ; 
Klunzinger, Korallenth. d. roth. Meeres, Th. ii. p. 9. 
Corallum cespitose; branches thick and stunted, little divided, 15 mm. thick, with here 
and there a short ascending proliferous twig. Axial corallites little larger than many of the 
radial ones, 3°5 mm. diameter, wall thick and porous, margin rounded, aperture 0°5 mm., 
star well developed. Radial corallites irregular, but placed in rows near the apex of a branch. 
On the distal part of a branch the majority are short, stout, tubular, with a rounded margin 
and striate wall, a little unequal in size, but many nearly as stout as the axial corallites, with 
immersed ones between. The lower part of the branches bear thick verruciform corallites 
and immersed ones at the base. Ccnenchyma very spongy and echinulate. 
The branches bear numerous bud-corallites up to 8 mm. long and 5 mm. thick ; these 
gradually increase in importance towards the base of the colony, where they form twigs 
3cm.long. The species differs from M. seriate in the more pointed and more proliferous 
branches, and the inner part of the corallite-wall is rarely incomplete. 
A specimen in the Collection from Ceylon which appears referable to this species has 
the branches 6 to 8 cm. long and 1 to 1°5 em. thick, little divided, and scarcely tapering 
excepting near the apex. Axial corallites 3 to 4 mm. thick, hemispherical, or with rounded 
margin. The prominent radial corallites are chiefly stout, tubular, or dimidiate, many are 
3°5 mm. diameter and 5 mm. long, and the majority are 2°7 to 3 mm. diameter, with a thick 
wall and rounded margin, with a few small subimmersed ones between. The aperture is by 
no means always central; usually the inner part of the wall is shorter and comparatively 
thin until the corallite has attained its full development. Proliferous corallites are numerous, 
and may attain a length of 1 cm. ‘The septa are arranged in two well-developed cycles; in 
many of the radial corallites the outer directive is much broader than the others. Corallum 
very porous ; surface spongy-echinulate ; wall substriate and echinulate. 
Var. spongiosa. 
A form which may be a variety of this species is remarkable for its extreme porosity. 
It is subarborescent in habit. The branches are 10 cm. long and 1°5 to 2 em. thick, 
gradually tapering to an axial corallite 4mm, in diameter. The corallites on the apical 
part of a branch are similar to those in the Ceylon specimen, but 3 em. below the apex the 
