Verrill, N'otes on Radlata. 541 



epitheca. Septa dentate, low, widely spreading, in simple species very 

 uunierous, in compound ones often but few. Interseptal chambers 

 crossed by transverse trabicuhi?. Costae echinulate, often spinose. 



In some compound genei'a the polyps are of two or more kinds, the 

 lateral or secondary ones often very imperfectly developed, but the 

 central, primary polyp, even in these, has tlie essential structure of 

 the typical forms. 



Fungia Lamarck. 



Fangia (pars) Lamarck, Syst. des animaux sans vert, p. ,^69 1 801 ; W\<t. Anira. sans 

 vert., ii, p. 236, 1816 ; 2n'l ed., p. 369, 1836; Ehreaberg, Corall.des rotheu Meere-, 

 p. 48, 1834. 



Fanqia Dana, Zoophytes IT. S. Expl. Exp., p. 287, 1846 ; Edw. and Haime, Ann. des 

 Sci. nat, 3^ ser, xv, p. 76, 1851 ; Coralliaries, iii, p. 5, 1860. 



Corallura simple, circular or nearly so, while young turbinate and 

 attached by a narrow base ; the outer margin growing outward 

 rapidly and becoming horizontal or revolute, the pedicle breaks off 

 and the coral afterward remains free, resting upon the flat or concave 

 basal surface, formed by the wall, which in life is completely covered 

 by a lime-secreting membrane, by which the scar of adherence is soon 

 obliterated. Wall more or less perforated by irregular openings, 

 especially near the margin, covered with radiating cost.e, which are 

 denticulate or even spinose. Septa very numerous, unequal ; the 

 principal ones high and thickened near the central fosette, those of 

 the later cycles broadest near the margin, becoming thin and unitiiio- 

 together toward their inner edges, usually with a more or less marked 

 tentacular tooth at the points where they become narrower. Central 

 foselte small. Columella little developed, trabicular. 



This genus is represented by many large and line species, several of 

 them becoming more than a foot in diameter, in the Indo-Pacilic 

 fauna. These species abound in the shallow lagoons of the Feejee 

 and Society Islands, Kingsmills, Pliillipines, and throughout the tropi- 

 cal parts of the central Pacific and Indian Oceans, extending on the 

 coast of Africa from Zanzibar to the coral reefs of the Red Sea. In 

 the Atlantic Ocean none have hitherto been found, unless a small un- 

 described species, dredged by JMr. Pourtales, of the U. S. Coast Sur- 

 vey, at a great depth between Florida and Cuba, really belongs to 

 this genus. 



The following is remarkable as the only species hitherto discovered 

 on the Pacific coast of America. It appears to be very local in its 

 habitat, having been as yet found only at one small island. 



