POLYNESIAN PORITES. 63 
Rotumah. The point isa very important one, for if this fragment were (as I would like to believe 
it to have been) from Rotumah also, then we should have the Rotumah variation, so far as we 
know, confined entirely to Rotumah, and showing a definite distinction from the Funafuti 
specimen (for Mr. Gardiner’s two other specimens from Funafuti belong to one and the same 
stock). See observations under P. Ellice Islands 1. 
The photograph shows the base and part of the side of one of the mammille. Here and 
there wall flakes are shown devoid of trabecule. But the whole photograph shows conspicuous 
trabecular development. 
a. A nearly complete stock. Zool. Dept. 1905. 1. 19. 13. 
b. A fragment (? from Funafuti). Zool. Dept. 1904. 10. 17. 21. 
It is possible that the Porites cylindrica of Dana ought to come in this group, but as Dana 
was not sure of its origin, it is better to describe it provisionally among forms of unknown 
or uncertain locality. (See Part II.) 
ELLICE ISLANDS. 
NoTE ON THE ELLICE ISLANDS GROUP. 
According to Mr. C. Headley (see Memoir, iii. part 6, of the Australian Museum, Sydney, 
1898, p. 349) the Funafuti reefs, as compared with those “of Queensland, New Guinea, 
or New Caledonia,” are very poor in corals, the smaller reefs within the lagoon supplying 
the greater number. I may note, also, that Mr. Gardiner’s collection was made almost, if not 
entirely, from within the lagoon. Neither Mr. Gardiner nor Mr. Headley discovered any 
branching forms. Professor Sollas, however, succeeded in finding two forms, one of which 
certainly would be called branching (see P. Ellice Islands, 16 and 17); but whether they were 
from the lagoon or from the outer reefs, there is no information. 
40. Porites Ellice Islands QD]. (P. Elliciana prima.) (Pl. V. fig. 2; Pl. XIV. fig. 14.) 
[Funafuti lagoon, 7 fathoms, coll. J. S. Gardiner ; British Museum. } 
Syn. Porites exilis (partim) Gardiner, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1898) p. 275, pl. xxiv. figs. 1, n, 8. 
Deseription.—The corallum forms thin, horizontal, ear-shaped stocks which, supported by 
thick, wrinkled epitheca, project freely. All the projecting part is very thin, but the skeleton 
may greatly thicken near its attachment, when the same light trabecular texture appears as 
was described above for P. Fiji Islands 24. 
The calicles are about 0°75 mm. in diameter, very shallow, sub-circular in the central 
regions of the stock, but showing a tendency to be arranged in curved rows which straighten out 
towards the edges of the stock ; hence at this part the calicles are very nearly diamond-shaped. 
