POLYNESIAN PORITES. 51 
23. Porites Fiji Islands (248, (P. Fidjiensis octava.) 
? [ Feejee Islands,” coll. Wilkes Expedition, 1838-42. ] 
Syn. Porites nigrescens Dana, Zooph. (1848) p. 557 ; pl. liv. figs. 1, la, 1b; pl. liii. fig. 9. 
? Porites nigrescens Rehberg, Abh. Naturw. Verein Hamb. xii. (1892). 
Description —The corallum forms close tufts of erect stems, long, tapering, sinuous, 
sometimes fusing (“distantly coalescent”) and branching, with tips, some sharp, some blunt. 
Stems from 2°5 to 3°5 em. thick at the base; branchlets 8 to 12 mm. thick, and from 
5 to 6*5 cm. long. It is alive for 15 to 20cm. The calicles are large (1°5 mm.), excavate 
only at the growing tips. The septa are broad and granulous. 
The clumps are 20 cm. and more high, and much branched. They blacken as they die, 
the septa appearing brown. Other growth-forms occur—e.g. single’ thick stems, 5 cm. thick 
and “divaricately ” branching, the branchlets ending in sharp, tapering points. 
The above is the original description. From the figures we gather that the walls are 
broad and flaky, that an open ring of frosted granules rises from the surface of the broad 
bases of the septa (wall- or septal-granules) and within, a ring of six pali; no central tubercle 
is shown in the fossa. The transverse section shows that the horizontal elements are 
developed at the expense of the trabecule. 
The sinuosity of the stems has naturally attracted attention, and suggested affinities which 
have nothing else to support them. The same character appears in Dana’s P. cylindrica, trom 
some unknown locality, probably the Fiji Islands. 
With its striking growth-form and the excellent description and figures given by Dana, 
especially that of the section showing the immense development of the tangential skeletal 
elements (cf. P. Tonga Islands 9), the coral ought to be easily re-identified. Briggemann 
suggested that P. Fiji Islands 6 may have been a fragment of a base of a stock of this coral. 
On this, see remarks on p. 49; while Dr. Rehberg mentions a coral from the Pelew Islands, 
to which he gave this same name. 
Dana’s variety, “ mucronata,” from the Sooloo Sea, is referred to on p. 162. 
24. Porites Fiji Islands (49, (P Fidjiensis nona.) 
[“ Feejee Islands,” coll. Wilkes Expedition, 1838-1842 ; Paris Museum. ] 
Syn. Porites contigqua Dana (non Mad. contigua Esper), Zooph. (1848) p. 560, pl. liv. figs. 6, 6a. 
Porites ? dane M.-E, & H., Ann. Sci. Nat. xvi. (1851) p. 32.* 
Synarea dane Verrill, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. (1864) p. 43.* 
Description.—The corallum forms low even-topped convex clumps composed of a compact 
tangle of angular stems of quite irregular shapes ; their tips are blunt and 3 to 6 mm. thick. 
The living layer is 6 cm. deep. 
* This was one of the Porites the position of which in the genus Milne-Edwards and Haime 
doubted. The doubt was based upon the fact that the calicles were flush with the surface, and the 
walls being thick, there appeared to be a great development of ccenenchyma. Acting upon this hint, 
Dr. Verrill changed the generic name to Synarwa. See further, Introduction p. 9. 
H 2 
