POLYNESIAN PORITES. 103 
86. Porites Sandwich Islands (96, (P. Hawaiensis sexta.) (Pl. IX. fig. 9; Pl. XII. fig. 5. 
{Honolulu, coll. H.M.S. ‘Challenger’; British Museum. ] 
Syn. Porites lichen Quelch (non Dana), Chall. Rep. xvi. (1886) p. 181. 
non Porites lichen Bassett-Smith, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (6°) vi. (1890) p. 456. (See P. China Sea.) 
Description.—The corallum is explanate and loosely encrusting. It attains at times a 
thickness of 1 cm. or more. The surface is crumpled into sharply raised, rounded or angular 
eminences as much as 1 cm. high. These are apparently due to the bendings, upheavals, aud 
subsequent droopings of the growing and expanding edges. These latter are from 1°5 to 2 mm. 
thick. They are everywhere supported by epitheca. 
The calicles are about 1 mm. in diameter, angular, deep, etc. The walls are usually very 
thin, but reticular in the angles (where shallow young buds appear), lattice-like, and with 
jagged edges. The septa are also thin and often lamellate, always with denticulate edges. 
They slope irregularly into the fossa, meeting when they reach the columellar tangle. The 
pali are formed by the jagged edges of the septa, and in the deeper calicles, in cases where the 
septa do not meet and fuse in pairs (cf. Introduction, p. 18), they are irregular and obscure; 
but in the shallower calicles the usual formula can be made out as eight small delicately 
frosted granules, straggling, and very extended. The fossa is deep, large, and open. 
The columellar tangle is somewhat compact, with indistinct central tubercle, and 
surrounded by twelve large, open, rounded interseptal loculi, descending into the corallum. 
The skeletal elements are everywhere thin and delicate. 
This is one of the ‘ Challenger’ specimens from Honolulu, and was identified by Mr. Quelch 
with Dana’s Porites lichen; but the mural network which characterised Dana’s type is not 
especially striking here. 
With this form Mr. Bassett-Smith provisionally identified one of his Tizard Bank 
specimens ; but the much greater thickness of the skeletal elements, the larger size of the 
calicles, the longer, more slit-like interseptal loculi, and more open columella, are differences 
which require emphasising. See P. China Sea 14. 
This specimen has a strong superficial family likeness to P. Sandwich Islands 5 from the 
same locality; but the growth-forms are very different, while the fact that corals from the 
same regions tend to resemble one another has been already frequently noted. 
a, Honolulu. Zool. Dept. 86. 12. 9. 316. 
b. 5 spirit fragments, 1 to 2 fathoms. Zool. Dept. 91. 2. 24. 1, 
c. 1 spirit specimen, 20 fathoms. Zool. Dept. 80. 11. 25. 229. 
d 
. Off Honolulu (spirit), 40 to 50 eae 
obscured by the preserved polyps . Zogh: Dept oO tesa 
