INDIAN OCEAN PORITES. 223 
only slight differentiation of pali; and (4) a large lens-shaped mass, dying on one side, 
proliferating on the other (see Pl. XXXIV. fig. 1), with the calicles usually deeper and less 
uniform. On the smoother surfaces the calicles in the two forms closely approximate. For 
other free branching stocks, see Table III. 
a. Zool. Dept. 98. 4. 21. 2. 
b. Zool. Dept. 83. 7. 27. 18. 
c. Fragments of 0. Zool. Dept. 83. 7. 27. 13. 
In addition to the above, Dr. Ortmann* records several fragments of Porites from 
Mauritius in the Strasburg Museum. Two of these he proposed to identify specifically : 
one with the Red Sea form called Porites solida by Klunzinger (see p. 236); the other, being a 
ecenenchymatous form, with Synarewa (= Porites) dane M.-E. & H., which was from the Fiji 
Islands (see p. 51.) 
SEYCHELLES. 
232. Porites Seychelles yl. (P. Seychellensis prima.) 
[Seychelles, coll. M. L. Rousseau; Paris Museum. } 
Description—The corallum forks into separate clusters of deeply incised, flabellate, or 
cockscomb like ridges, 4-6 cm. high, and with curving edges which tend to rise up at the 
ends of the ridges into points. The living layer is about 6 cm. deep, and its lower edges may 
bend freely outwards from the dead previous growth. 
The calicles are deep and funnel-shaped, 1:5 mm. across. The walls have sharp median 
ridges, sometimes as continuous threads, sometimes as so many interrupted ends of reticular 
threads. Seen from above the walls appear thick, owing to the compact ring of septa sloping 
away on each side of them. The septa are short, very thick and symmetrical, hardly, however, 
fusing. In the base of the funnel a deep round fossa sinks suddenly down, with no traces of 
pali on the ends of the sloping septa. 
This coral is No. 197 in the Paris Museum, and is labelled P. nodifera, but it is very 
different indeed from the Red Sea coral to which Dr. Klunzinger gives that name (see P. Red 
Sea 3, p. 239). While I have been unable to include all the Paris Museum Porites on 
which I possess illustrated notes, I think that the growth-form and the character of the 
calicles in this coral are sufficiently interesting to justify minute description in this Catalogue. 
In ‘Les Coralliaires, iii, (1860) p. 180, Milne-Edwards records a Porites from the 
Seychelles which he referred to the “species” arenosa. But on the difficulties of discovering 
what the actual specimens referred to were, see below on the Red Sea group, p. 245. 
* Zool. Jahrb. (Syst.) iii, (1888) pp. 157, 158. 
