A. E. Verrill — Bermudian and West Indian Reef Corals. 70 



Gregory (op. cit., 1895, p. 265) erroneously united this and the 

 preceding species. They are certainly clearly distinct. The name 

 clivosa has unquestionable claims to j)rioi ity. 



This coral does not occur at the Bermudas, but it is very abundant 

 and large on the Florida reefs and at the Bahamas, as well as farther 

 south, throughout the West Indies, and at Colon. 



This species varies extensively in the length and form of the cali- 

 cinal grooves. Usually they are long and very sinuous, but in many 

 specimens ])art of them are, in certain parts, shorter and circum- 

 scribed, with some oval or angular astreiform calicles, especially on 

 the flat or depressed portions, between the nodules. 



Var. dispar V. nov. 



I have already alluded (p. 6S) to a Florida specimen in the Yale 

 Museum that has a large pax't of the flat basal mass covered with 

 more or less short and circumscribed angular calicles, much like those 

 of M. Agassizli. But on the nodules they are long and sinuous, as 

 usual. Florida Reefs, coll. E. B. Hunt. 



Var. explanata V. nov. Plate xiv, figure 2. 



When young this may form rather thm encrusting plates, often 

 with their spreading, or even free and foliaceous edges somewhat 

 resembling a MeruUna. In this condition the septa are more 

 loosely arranged and obliquely inclined ; the collines become small^ 

 narrow, and sharply triangulai", close to the edge, and the valleys 

 become shallow and flat, most of them having short, rudimentary 

 collines dividing them into two. Detached fragments of this form 

 might easily be mistaken for a distinct species. 



Colon, Yale Museum, coll. F. H. Bradley. 



Maeaudra varia (Dana) Ver. 



Astraea {Fissicella) varia Dana, Zo(>ph. U. States Expl. Exp., p. 236, pi. xii, 



figs. VSa, 13b, 1846. 

 Prionastra>a f varia Edw. and Haime, Hist. Nat. Corall., ii, p. 524, 1857. 

 Goniastra^a varia YerriW, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., i, p. 48, 1864. 



Of this rare species, supposed to be West Indian, I have seen only 

 few specimens and have none at hand for figuring. Dana's type I 

 have not seen. He does not state where it was placed. However, 

 Dana's description and figures indicate that this is a M(eandra with 

 mostly circumscribed, GoniastrceaAWie calicles, much as in the next, 

 but with a more cellular structure. 



Meandrina spongiosa Dana is entirely unlike this species, to which 

 Dana thought it might be united as a variety. 



