178 MADREPORARIA. 
Mr. Bassett-Smith suggested that the massive specimen was specifically identical 
with P. China Sea 13, while the small explanate colony was equally closely allied to 
Quelch’s “ P. lichen” (= P. Sandwich Islands 6). But, daring as it may be to group together 
the explanate colony a with the massive specimen 0, the evidence of the calicles compels 
us to do so. There are further sections of a which show that it could easily develop into a 
massive form by continuous growth. 
a. Zool. Dept. 89. 9. 24. 82. 
b. Zool. Dept. 89. 9. 24. 130. 
There is a spirit specimen which seems to belong here ; it is a fragment of an explanate 
growth. 
C Zool. Dept. 89. 9. 24. 10. 
178. Porites China Sea 915. (P. Sinensis quintadecima.) 
(Pl. XXVII. fig. 5; Pl. XXX. fig. 27.) 
[Tizard Bank, Ituaba, 2 fathoms, coll. Bassett-Smith ; British Museum. | 
Syn. “ Porites solida var. a Forsk” Bassett-Smith, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 6°, vi. (1890) p. 457. 
Description—The corallum is massive, forms great irregular stony ridges, the living 
colony being confined to the top, extending irregularly from 3-7 cm. down the sides, with 
occasional creeping edges. The surface is broken up into broad flat ridges, which tend to have 
sharp median keels, and are separated by narrow valleys with sloping sides. 
The calicles are conspicuous, somewhat deepened, about 1 mm. in diameter. The walls 
are everywhere thin, sharp, straight ridges, granular or frosted, with roughened sides, on 
which the septa only slowly appear. These latter are short, thin, and frosted, regularly 
radial and well spaced, with wide interseptal loculi and large open fossa. The pali are 
inconspicuous, hardly larger than the septal granules, and nowhere rise into rings visible to 
the naked eye. A flattened tubercle appears in the fossa. 
In spite of the thinness of the skeletal elements, walls and septa, the section is almost 
massive, as if built of very thick trabecule, separated by minute irregular pores. The colour 
of the unbleached coral is dark brown. 
The general character of the calicles reminds one of those of P. Sandwich Islands 6 and 7. 
But nothing is gained by asswming that therefore the specimens are genetically related. 
The same remark applies to Mr. Bassett-Smith’s suggested identification of a Red Sea coral. 
Even if Forskal’s description could be shown to be that of a Porites, and could be 
amplified and proved to be of a specimen like this coral, we should know nothing of the real 
affinities of the forms. 
a Zool. Dept. 89. 9. 24. 87. 
