POLYNESIAN PORITES. 79 
The part of the stock photographed shows the mosaic rather broken up (? rubbed off); but 
other parts of the stock show the usual surface character of branching Porites with trabecular 
section—the tips of the trabecul form a compact mass of large granules at the surface in which 
the calicle patterns can be traced (cf. Pl. II. figs. 6, 7). The other calicle type in branching 
Porites is that shown, for instance, in Pl. II. fig. 8; the cross section consisting mainly of the 
concentric as opposed to the trabecular elements. 
A worm-tube 0:75 mm. in the lowest section increases in size to 3°25 mm. in the section 
4 cm. higher up. The worm and the coral must have grown up together. 
a, _ Zool. Dept. 1904, 10. 17, 35. 
56, Porites Ellice Islands q717%. (P. Hiliciana septimadecima.) (PI. VII. fig. 9; 
Pl. XIV. fig. 25.) 
[Funafuti,* coll. W. J. Sollas; British Museum. ] 
Description.—The corallum forms irregular, flattened, spatulate knobs, some 3 to 3°5 cm. 
high, and about the same broad, and from 1°5 to 2 cm. thick. The edges, though rounded, 
thin away, and show indications of dividing into lobes, The neck shows slight constriction. 
The form and size of the base are quite unknown. 
The calicles are 1 mm, in diameter, but look small and crowded; they are flush with 
the surface, and show no regular shape. The wall appears an irregular zigzag thread, here 
thinner, there broader and more flaky ; where broadest, with large open pores. Here and there 
the large wall-flakes are smooth and solid-looking, bnt it may be that the surface has been 
rubbed, and the finer surface threads and frosted branching tips of the coral worn off. These 
can still be seen in rather more sheltered hollows, and the whole surface at such spots has 
a soft woolly or velvety appearance. The septa project from the wall threads, short and bent, 
but fusing in the typical way. They are only irregularly visible at the surface, whereas the 
pali are conspicuous (D and E, fig. 3, p. 19), surrounded very irregularly with septal granules, 
the latter being frequently joined to the wall. 
Round the sharp edges of the knob there is a light open streaming network, apparently 
filamentous, in which calicles appear with large columellar tangle flush with the surface. 
These two interesting fragments were originally of an ash-grey colour, but on treatment 
with eau-de-Javelle they turned a pale salmon-pink. The calicles are very difficult to describe. 
The contrast between the coarse stony appearance of the wall reticulum over a large part of 
the coral, and the frosted pali and septal granules within, seems to indicate that the walls 
themselves have been worn down, while the intra-calicular skeletons escaped injury by having 
been slightly sunk below the level of the surface. Fig. 9, Pl. VIL., is taken from a part where 
the walls may have been rubbed down. At the same time, it is quite possible that this may 
be an adaptation to the smooth exposed surface, and that the woolly appearance caused by the 
rising up of fine skeletal points and filaments may be normal only in concave, and therefore 
* See observation at head of Ellice Islands group. 
