PORITES. 3 
pali to the rest of the skeleton have come to light as one of the results of the summing up 
and critical analysis of the facts prepared expressly for this Introduction. 
And yet, after all this uphill work, the reader who masters the account given in Sec. III. 
of the morphology of the skeleton will find it simple enough, and it may be a wonder to him 
that the task was so hard, taking months and even years to accomplish. That is, however, the 
fact. There were, indeed, moments near the beginning of it when the writer was in despair, 
and on the verge of resigning his undertaking altogether. 
The method of treating the variations which the writer has been able to describe will be 
discussed on p. 25; compare also Vol. IV., pp. 3, 31, 190. 
II. HISTORICAL. 
(a) Porites. 
The generic name was first given by Link (Naturalien Samml. Rostock, 1807, p. 163), 
and the genus consisted of “branching” corals “covered all over with scattered, stellate, flaky 
(blattrigen) openings.” He cites two species: P. polymorphus, a term which explains itself, 
and P. damicornis, which is a Pocillopora. 
Prior to this, Pallas (Elenchus, 1766, p. 324) grouped under the name Madrepora porites 
a heterogeneous assortment which he had seen actually or in figures. There is no record of 
the specimens actually seen, and with the exception of one or two of the cited figures, the 
corals they were intended to represent cannot now be identified. That figured by Seba 
(Thes., iii, p. 109, fig. 11) from Curagoa, with the locality to help, may be rediscovered. The 
figures given by Sloane (Jamaica I., 1707, pl. xviii., fig. 4) and by Morrison (Hist. Plant. iii, 
1699, section 15, pl.x.) may be true Porites. Of the names quoted by Pallas, the Madrepora 
punetata Linn. has generally been thought to refer to a member of this genus, but, in the 
absence of any figure, it is not now possible to say. The question is discussed in the systematic 
part, see, e.g., under the heading P. moluccas 1. 
In 1775 Forskal, in an account of the corals found on the shores of Arabia, noticed some 
used as building material, which he called “Madrepora solida,’ with a variety “fragilia.” 
Milne-Edwards referred them to the genus Goniastrea, but Dr. Klunzinger claims them as 
Porites, viz., P. solida Forskal and P. lutea K1z. 
In 1786 Ellis and Solander published one excellent figure (pl. xlvii. fig. 1) of a Porites, 
as M. porites of Pallas, without locality, and another (pl. xli. fig. 4) which has been often taken 
for a Porites, but it may be many things, and it is idle to continue the process of guessing. 
To the two best figures of Porites above mentioned, viz., those of Seba and Ellis, Esper 
added five coloured figures of Poritids, four of which ought to take their places among known 
forms assumed by the genus Porites. His pls. xxi. and xxiA are two distinct forms, though 
placed under ©. porites. Pls, lix. and lixa respectively represent a branching Goniopora and a 
B 2 
