POLYNESIAN PORITES. 67 
43. Porites Ellice Islands a74. (P. Elliciana quarta.) (P1.V. fig. 6; Pl. XIV. fig. 16.] 
[Funafuti, coll. W. J. Sollas ; British Museum. ] 
Description.—The corallum, the complete growth-form of which is unknown, rises into 
small rounded nodules or nodulated branches, the surfaces of which, otherwise smooth and 
round, rise here and there into smaller knobs and excrescences. 
The calicles are 0°75 mm. in diameter and flush with the surface at the sides, but slightly 
larger and deep funnel-shaped on the growing tips. The wall consists of a system of broad, 
crisp, flattened flakes, in tiers above one another. At the growing top these flakes seem to 
be thrown up edgewise, in order to make tall membranous wall-ridges. There is even a third 
kind of wall formation, viz. where fresh knobs are starting; it consists of a thick, open, 
filamentous reticulum. The septa in the lateral calicles run out from the edges of the wall- 
flakes; they are irregular both in shape and position, some as thick triangular tongues, others 
as strands or as knobs; some come from the uppermost tier of wall-flakes, others from a lower 
tier; their radial symmetry is, however, preserved, and their typical unions can be made out. 
The five principal pali are well developed. The fossa may either be deep and open, or closed 
by the columellar tangle, which consists of a few thick strands. From these a minute central 
tubercle sometimes rises. 
In section the trabecule are thin and wavy, and fairly far apart. The horizontal elements 
are as well developed as the trabecule. The unbleached stock was a bright olive green. 
The only specimen is a single detached knob, 2 cm. long, 1 em. thick, and 3°5 em. broad. 
Its stalk of attachment was flattened and about 7 mm. thick. Compare its flaky walls with 
those of P. Fiji Islands 24, but they are here much broader as compared with the width of the 
calicle, and at the tip turn up into wall-ridges. 
a. Zool. Dept. 1904. 10. 17. 25. 
44. Porites Ellice Islands qy)5. (P Elliciana quinta.) (Pl. V. figs. 7, 8,9; cf. Diagram fig. 8, 
Px 
[Funafuti, lagoon, coll. J. S. Gardiner; British Museum and Cambridge 
University Museum. ] 
Syn. Porites trimurata (partim) Gardiner, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1898) p. 271. 
Description.—The corallum forms rounded flat-topped cakes, with rather sharp edges, 
which project 4 cm. free over the substratum. The under-surface is alive for some 2 cm, 
under the edge. The table-top is wavy. 
The calicles on the top (fig. 7) are 1:5 mm. in diameter, crowded and neatly rounded in the 
bases of the polygonal areas made by the sharp wall-ridges. These are loose, straight rows 
of trabecule with feathery tips, and are consequently denticulate ; seen from above, the 
K 2 
