MALAYAN PORITES. 177 
The section shows a loose open reticulum, of which thick irregular trabecule are joined 
by even thicker and more irregular horizontal elements. The pores are large and open in the 
valleys, but tend to be small and the skeleton consequently dense under the warts. 
The colour of the unbleached stock is a dark dull brown. 
There are two large specimens, one a complete dish-shaped free explanate growth (a), and 
a crust built up of scattered colonies creeping upon dead previous growths, alge, etc. Both 
have warty surfaces, but this is much more marked on the larger specimen. 
Mr. Bassett-Smith’s identification of it with the ‘Challenger’ coral named by Quelch 
P. crassa from Fiji is evidently based upon the fact that in both, the calicles tend to be sunk 
between uprisings of the walls (see p. 48). 
Compare this coral also with one from the Macclesfield Bank, P. China Sea 7. 
a. A large circular dish, with bleached fragment. Zool. Dept. 89. 9, 24. 161. 
b. A coral crust. Zool. Dept. 89. 9. 24, 172. 
177. Porites China Sea 914. (P. Sinensis quartadecima.) 
(Pl. XXVIL. fig. 4; Pl. XXXV. fig. 13.) 
[Tizard Bank, 2°5 fathoms, coll. Bassett-Smith ; British Museum. | 
Syn. Porites crassa ? Bassett-Smith (non Quelch) Ann, and Mag. Nat. Hist. 6°, vi. (1890) p. 456. 
Porites lichen ? Bassett-Smith (Pars.) (non Dana) ibid. 
Description.—The corallum is encrusting, with or without free edges. Old stocks may 
build up solid masses by repeated incrustations. The surface is wrinkled. 
The calicles are conspicuous, somewhat deep, crowded, 1-1-25 mm.; the walls coarsely 
reticular everywhere, with sharp irregular edges, which rise in wave-like points at the angles 
(on the tips of which young calicles may appear); below their sharp edges they often thicken 
greatly. The septa are short and not apparent round the aperture, but deep down they appear 
rather thick, crooked, and with jagged edges and tips, but with conspicuous radial symmetry. 
The pali are mostly eight in number, the larger size of the four principals rendering them 
visible to the naked eye. They are long jagged rods, which do not rise nearly to the height 
of the wall. The septa are so deep down that the large palic ring is separated from the high 
walls by a deep trough, while within is a large fossa, in the base of which, at various depths, 
sometimes very deep down, a columellar tangle, with or without a large knob-like tubercle, 
can be seen. 
The section shows a very loose open reticulum, with large meshes of irregular shapes and 
sizes ; neither trabecule nor horizontal elements are conspicuous, but the rectangular pattern 
is visible. 
There are two specimens: a small encrusting, much wrinkled plate (a), found “west of 
S. Garvan Reef,’ with edges free, and a large conical mass (6), ? exact locality, which stood on 
its apex, and was built up by a colony with calicles exactly like those of a, but there is no 
certain sign that its edges were ever free. 
2A 
