NO. 1101 . GENERA OF SIMPLE FUNG ID CORA LS— VA VGIIA N. 375 



V. Subfamily MeruUninx Milne Edwards and Haime: "Corallum 

 compound, foliac^cous. Septa confluent, united by dissepiments. 

 Wall rudimentary. Common [basal] wall perforate." 



The principal value of the contribution of Pratz is that it showed 

 that valuable information could be obtained from a more ^tletailed 

 study of the septal structure. The terms proposed by him are cum- 

 bersome, and they do not conform to modern nomenclatorial rules; 

 it is, therefore, inadvisable to use them at the present time. 



The specimens that Pratz considered TJiannHistraea have been shown 

 by Gregory not to be Thamnastraea at all (see p. 373). Thamnastraea 

 Lesauvag'e (orij^iiially Thami)asten'a)he\ong>^ in Pratz's '"'' Pseudoagari- 

 cinse,.'''' The distinction between the ^''Pse\id(Hi(jarlcin;v^^ and ^^Agari- 

 mi<ys" is probably not valid, as shown by a species of Agaricia^ A. 

 crassa., recentlj^ described by Professor Verrill." The septa of the 

 Fanginai are often, the smaller one normally, perforate. 



Pratz laid much stress on whether synapticula are what he calls 

 true or false ("true," where a calcification center joins opposed granu- 

 lations; "false," where they fuse directl}"). Such a division of these 

 structures is of no systematic importance.^ 



Duncan, in his Revision of the Families and Genera of the Madre- 

 poraria, divided the Madreporaria Fungida into live families, as follows: 



"I. Family PLESIOFUNGID^. 



"This family unites more or less the Aporosa and Fungida. 



"Fungida simple or colonial, with synapticula in the interseptal 

 loculi, besides endothecal dissepiments. Septa solid and imperforate, 

 occasionally irregularly perforate and trabeculate." 



"11. Family FUNGIDyE. 



"(Subfamily Funginve. (part), Edwards and Haime, Hist. Nat. ties Corall., Ill, 1860, 



p. 4.) 



"Simple or colonial forms, usuall}^ depressed, with the septa solid 

 or occasionally porous. Synapticula crossing the interseptal loculi 

 and uniting the septa without the presence of dissepimental endotheca. 

 Wall more or less synapticulate or special, perforated and echinulate. 

 Calices with radiating septa in the simple forms; with or without radi- 

 ating lamella?, along a central axial line, or scattered in the colonial 

 forms. Tentacles short, scattered, sometimes obsolete. 



"This family stands very much by itself, and its genera are remark- 

 able for their calicular structures and developments." 



«Trans. Conn. Acad. Sci., XI, 1902, p. 145, pi. xxx, fig. 6; pi. xxxiv, fig. 2. 



'^Von Koch, Das Skelett der Steinkorallen, Gegenbauer Festschrift, 1896, p. 260; 

 Vaughan, Eoc. and Lower Oligoc. Corals, Mon. U. S. Geol. Siirv., XXXIX, 1900, 

 pp. 47, 48. 



