122 MADREPORARIA. 
upper, but coming more to the surface in the lateral calicles round the base, The septa are 
irregular and obscure; they appear round the inner margin as loose threads of the wall 
reticulum. The radial symmetry, usually obscure, is not seen in the lateral calicles round the 
base. In these the septa are short, and the palic ring large. In less symmetrical calicles the 
palic ring may be much smaller, and the septa longer. In the small rings the number of pali 
may be four or five; in the larger seven or eight. The exact formula in the latter case is, 
however, obscure. There is a central tubercle and an obscure columellar tangle. 
The section of an edge shows a kind of wavy streaming of flattened trabeculz joined 
together by cross-pieces, leaving oval pores. The tops of the knobs show traces of a deep rose- 
pink, while the valleys between the knobs are a greyish green. 
This coral should be compared with the next. It is like it in general structural features, 
and yet very unlike. There is, however, no such evidence as there was in the cases of speci- 
mens a and 6 of P. Great Barrier Reef 14, to lead us to suppose that the differences are due 
solely to subtile differences in the texture of the skeleton. When this can be shown, we have 
nothing to do but to unite the specimens under one heading, for such fine differences of 
texture are almost certainly mere local variations. 
a. Zool. Dept. 92. 12. 1. 325a. 
110. Porites Great Barrier Reef (4917. (P. Queenslandia septimadecima.) (Pl. XV. fig. 7.) 
[Rocky Island, coll. W. Saville-Kent ; British Museum.] 
Description.The corallum rises from an expanding or pendent creeping base into a 
cluster of short, bent processes of quite irregular size and shape, knobbed, pointed, forking, 
or without any definable form. The basal edge adheres to the substratum, and is about 2 mm. 
thick. 
The calicles are slightly over 1 mm., shallow, not closely crowded, sub-circular. The 
walls appear open and incomplete, as a delicate irregular system of branching granules, which, 
just below the surface, unite to form a reticulum, in which no clear traces of radial and 
concentric symmetry can be seen. Down the sides and round the bases these surface granules 
enlarge into flattened flakes with frosted edges. Beneath these, a lower flaky layer can be 
seen, which again is most pronounced on the sides and base. In the growing tips the calicles 
are opening in a streaming reticulum, with all their skeletal elements looking like very thin 
smooth, vertical lamine, and their walls as a fine open filamentous network, contrasting 
strongly with the large horizontal flakes with coarse surface granules on the sides and round 
the base. The septa, except quite at the tips, are thick, with very irregular sides; they 
gradually become broad triangular flakes. The septal granules are usually merged in the wall 
reticulum. The pali are not conspicuously distinguishable from the other granules of wall or 
septa, except by their forming a ring, usually of five. There is a columellar tubercle, also 
distinguishable chiefly by its position, 
