174 MADREPORARIA. 
gyrate among the calicles, seldom forming distinct circles round individual calicles. The 
texture of the reticulum is flaky at the base, the flakiness disappearing as it rises, till its top 
ridge is nearly filamentous. Flakes frequently droop down the sides of the ramparts towards 
the calicles, and their tips are very finely echinulate. The septa are broad tongues, sometimes 
constricted, very irregular and finely echinulate laterally, the radial symmetry being only 
preserved by those interseptal loculi which open into the fossa; these are deep and give a 
stellate appearance to the calicle. The pali rise as frosted knobs, but their ring is usually very 
irregular, and the formula is difficult to make out because of the irregularity of the septal 
flakes. The fossa is deep, with a small tubercle some way below the surface. The section shows 
very stout horizontal elements, and slight trabecule which appear at the surface as the pali and 
as the granules or vertical elements which rise above the surface of the flakes forming the 
ccenenchymatous reticulum. 
The colour of the unbleached coral is a rich yellowish fawn, with a suspicion of pink in 
it, almost peach-coloured. 
There are several fragments of this coral; all the larger pieces show signs of having risen 
from incrustations on dead previous growths, and some of them put out round horizontal 
expansions sometimes associated with a Bryozoan. The coral forms the top, the Bryozoan the 
under surface of such expansions. 
The specialisation of the cenenchyma into ramparts is interesting, especially occurring so 
near to another form which shows the same specialisation (see form last described), yet differs 
in so many other details. 
A similar specialisation is seen in P. North-West Australia 4, of which there is one 
complete stock resembling P. China Sea 9, except that it has retained its probably original 
erect tuft formation, and, what is most strange, two fragments ¢ and d@ almost exactly like 
this coral, with similar expansions of the colony into round plates associated with a Bryozoan. 
The resemblance is so close as to suggest some accidental mixture of the specimens. If 
the specimens are correctly labelled according to their localities, then we have a remarkable 
coral in North-West Australia with a variety, and a similar coral from the Macclesfield Bank 
with an exactly similar variety. 
a. Five fragments of a branching tangle. Zool. Dept. 93. 9. 1. 198. 
174. Porites China Sea (i911. (P. Sinensis wndecima.) (Pl. XXVII. fig. 1.) 
[Tizard Reef, lagoon, 6 fathoms,* coll. Bassett-Smith ; British Museum. | 
Syn. “ Porites arenosa” Bassett-Smith (non Esper), Ann, and Mag. Nat. Hist. 6°, vi. (1890) p. 456. 
Description.—The corallum builds up masses of dense rock by the creeping over the 
surface-of small colonies with very thin edges. 
The calicles are only slightly pitted, 1 mm. across. The walls are low, but have a faint 
median ridge consisting only of a row of minute, frosted, almost bushy granules. These mark 
* This is on the label, but in Mr. Bassett-Smith’s published notes of his identifications, the 
depth is given from 2 to 6 fathoms. 
