180 MADREPORARIA. 
the calicles and in the absence of pali. There are also slight traces of colour left which seem 
to show that in that respect also they agreed. But the other details differ very widely. There 
is no good section exposed which might have helped us. It may be noted that Mr. Bassett- 
Smith regarded them as distinct, whereas in my first draft of this Catalogue, when I was 
attempting to group the forms genetically, I had classed them together. I think there can be 
no doubt of their affinity, but until we can show transitions between the many different kinds 
of calicles presented by the specimens, we must describe them separately. 
For the coral called “P. lutea Quoy and Gaimard” by Milne-Edwards and Haime, 
see p. 34. 
a. Zool. Dept. 89. 9. 24. 78. 
181. Porites China Sea (1918. (P. Sinensis octavadecima.) 
(Pl. XXVII. fig. 8; Pl. XXIX. fig. 3.) 
[Tizard Reef, Itu-aba (south side), 2°5 fathoms, coll. Bassett-Smith ; British Museum. | 
Syn. Porites conferta Bassett-Smith (non Dana), Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 6°, vi. (1890) p. 456. 
Description—The corallum is ramose, with branches cylindrical, irregular, not very 
divergent, the tips blunt and rounded, sometimes slightly compressed and forking, the prongs 
growing unequally. In old stocks the stems and branches are continuations of the dead 
tangle of early growths. The edges of living layers sometimes grow down these dead branches, 
sometimes turn up and grow out freely like a collar. The depth of the living layer is 
variable, from 4 cm. 
The calicles are distinct, polygonal, shallow, nearly uniform in size, slightly over 1 mm. 
The walls are built of elegant, lobately-branching, horizontal flakes. Near the tips of the 
branches they have a median ridge of frosted or branching granules, below and on each side of 
which the peripheral portions of the septa are represented by rounded flakes, projecting into 
the cavity with delicately frosted edges. The well-developed pali (in formula GC, fig. 3, see 
Introduction, p. 19) form a conspicuous ring which encloses a distinct pin-hole fossa, with 
a minute columellar tubercle. 
The section shows an immense thickness and compactness of the horizontal or concentric 
elements, with hardly any traces of regular trabecule. 
The colour of the unbleached coral is nearly black. 
The calicles of this type remind one strongly of the well-known figure given by Milne- 
Edwards and Haime (Ann. Sci. Nat. xvi. (1851), pl. i.) of the calicles of Lamarck’s P. furcata. 
The method of growth is, however, quite distinct. 
The only specimen is a tangle of fused dead stems, tips of which are alive in separate 
patches, each reaching toadepth of about4cm. It is thus a portion of an old growth infested 
and distorted by Balanids, worm-tubes and galls, while the axes of the stems, even in the living 
portions, are deeply stained with magenta, indicating the presence of a clionid sponge. Even 
