11 4 A. E. 



Verrill — BenmuUan and West Indian Reef Corals. 



Eusmilia aspera (Dana) Edw. and Haime. 



Enphyllia aspera Dana, Zooph. U. S. Expl. Exp., pp. 164, 720, pi. ix, fig. 7, 



1846. 

 Eusmilia aspera Edw. and Haime, Hist. Corall., ii, p. 187, 1857. 

 Eusmilia Knorrii Edw. and Haime, Mon. Aster., Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., ser. 3, 



X, p. 365, pi. V, fig. 3, 1849.* Gregory, op. cit., p. 261, 1895. Vanghan, 



op. cit., p. 13, 1901. 



Dana's figured type is in the Yale Museum. Tlie description is 



good and the outline figure is very correct. It represents a branch 



Avith three calicles, broken from a larger specimen, also in the Yale 



Museum. No. 466. 



3. 



Figure 3. — Eusmillia aspeui (Dana). Part of type, f natural size. 



This specimen has the columella well developed in most of the 

 calicles, though small in some of the younger ones. It consists of 

 variously contorted thin laminae. The costfe are alternately large 

 and small ; the larger ones are thick, angular, uneven or lobed, often 

 cristate near the calicles, and irregularly dentate, with small rough 

 teeth. 



There can be no doubt of its identity with JE. Knorrii E. and H., 

 as these authors themselves admitted in their Hist. Corall., 1857. 

 Therefore it seems strange that both Gregor^^ and Vanghan should 

 have tried to restore this discarded later name without any legiti- 

 mate reason, f 



* Gregory (op. cit., p. 261) quotes the date of Knorrii Edw. and Haime, 

 Monog., as 1848. Edw. and Haime themselves quote it in Hist. Corall., ii, 188, 

 as 1849. Gregory also quotes aspera Dana as 1848. It is well known that his 

 report was published in 1846. But Gregory repeats this wrong date under 

 various other species, so that we cannot reckon it a typographical error. Edw. 

 and Haime give the date as 1846, correctly. 



f Gregory's statement that Dana's species was "so inadequately diagnosed 

 that there can be no certainty regarding it," is obviously erroneous. Edw. and 

 Haime certainly were able to recognize it. The figure and description are far 

 better than those of most corals before Dana's work. Moreover, the type, duly 

 labeled, was in the same case and on the same shelf with other specimens that 

 Mr. Gregory examined when he made his very hasty visit to the Yale Museum, 

 (see p. 145). He could have studied it and various other types of Dana, had he 

 taken the necessary time. 



