162 MADREPORARIA. 
under surface are fused into an almost solid plate, with a few short conical branchlets 
pressed into the general plane; surface naked, but with a few immersed corallites. The 
branchlets on the upper surface are erect and proliferous, 1 cm. thick, and vary in different 
specimens from 3 to 10 em. in length, Axial corallites hemispherical, 3 to 4 mm. diameter. 
Radial corallites nariform, with, towards the apex, a few tubular ones interspersed, which 
represent new proliferations ; they are 2 to 4 mm. long and 2 mm. broad at the apex; wall 
thick, especially in the upper ones; aperture round or oval, not large. Near the base of the 
branches immersed corallites are numerous, and a few are scattered between the prominent 
ones to near the apex. (Ortmann.) 
Ortmann remarks that the species resembles M. variabilis, K1z., but that it differs in the 
complanate under surface and in the nariform rather than tubular radial corallites. There 
are, however, many tubular corallites with a slit-like or oblique aperture in the type speci- 
mens, and, seeing that the habit of MW. variabilis is so varied, I think this form should 
rank only as a variety. On the other hand, one specimen in the Jena Museum labelled 
M. coalescens, var., appears to be more nearly allied to M. ceylonica. 
Indo-Pacific Ocean: Red Sea, Ceylon, Macclesfield Bank, Great-Barrier Reef, Samoa, 
Tongatabu. 
Forma pachyclados. 
a. Koseir, Red Sea. Dr. Klunzinger [C.]. 86. 10. 5.6. 
6. Tongatabu. J. J. Lister, Esq. [P.]. 91.3.6. 11. 
Cs ? f 158.2: 1005, 
d. Capricorn Islands. Saville-Kent Coll. 92. 6. 8.216. 
?e-h. Macclesfield Bank, 18 fath. H.M.S. ‘Penguin. 92. 10. 67 to 70. 
Wi 
?z. Macclesfield Bank, 18 to 28 fath. H.M.S. ‘Penguin.’ 92.10.17. 66. 
Forma leptoclados. 
a, 6. Port Denison. Saville-Kent Coll. 92. 6. 8. 217 & 218. 
Forma coalescens. 
a-k. Ceylon. Haeckel Coll. 92.12.5.9 to 16, 22, 24 & 32. 
172. Madrepora ceylonica. 
Madrepora ceylonica, Ortmann, Zool. JB. 1889, Bd. iv. p. 506, pl. xli. fig. 3. 
Madrepora remota, Ortmann, loc. cit. p. 510, pl. xiii. fig. 6. 
? Madrepora valida, Ortmann, loc. cit. p. 506. 
? Madrepora secale, Ortmann, loc. cit. p. 510. 
Corallum consisting of a flattened clump of branches arising from an incrusting base, the 
peripheral ones horizontal and fused together. Branches angular, 5 cm. long, under 1 cm. 
thick ; these bear below rather distant immersed corallites with a wide aperture (over 1 mm.) 
and prominent star. Up to a point about 1°5 cm. from the apex the corallites are immersed, 
with a few bursiform ones interspersed. Near the apex appressed nariform or tubular corallites 
occur, with somewhat thickened wall, 2 to 4mm. long and 2 to 2:5 mm. thick, but always 
with immersed and bursiform ones between. The apex of a branch is frequently occupied by 
