96 MADREPOEAEIA. 



A variety from the Capricorn Islands has shorter and more distant branchlets on the 

 upper surface, and appears to stand in the same relation to the type specimens as the variety 

 sinensis does to typical M. spicifera. 



Pacific Ocean : Torres Straits and Great-Barrier Reef. 



a,b. Thursday Island. SaviUe-Kent Coll. 92. 6. 8. 154 & 155. (Types.) 



c. Capricorn Islands. Saville-Kent Coll. 92. 6. 8. 156. (Var.) 



d, e. Wreck Bay, Great-Barrier Reef. J. B. Jukes, Esq. [P.]. 46. 7. 30. 27 & 27 a. 



87. Madrepora tenuispicata. 



Madrepora tenuispicata, Studer, Mitth. naturf. Ges. Bern, 1880, p. 20, fig. 1. 



Corallum corymbose from a lateral attachment. Main branches horizontal, 1 cm. thick, 

 forming an open network with occasional fusions ; under surface of the branches not flat- 

 tened ; they bear a few short and little-spreading twigs and numerous lateral, thick, tubular 

 corallites attached by the inner surface quite to the apex ; a few are immersed. Branchlets 

 on the upper surface erect, or arcuate near the margin of the colony, 3 to 4" 5 cm. long and 

 6 or 7 mm. thick at the base, distinctly tapering ; apices often provided with slender, little- 

 spreading proliferations, which at first consist of elongate tubular corallites 7 mm. long and 

 1'5 mm. thick, with the apex often a little incurved. Axial corallites 1*5 mm. diameter, 

 0-5 to 1*5 mm. exsert ; wall a little thickened, but fragile. Radial corallites 2 to 3"5 mm. 

 long, tubo-labellate, somewhat ascending, with or without a pointed apex ; wall thin and fragile, 

 excepting on the stouter divisions, where it is distinctly thickened near the base. The upper 

 surface of the main branches is covered vrith crowded, thin-walled, hemicotyloid coralHtes, 

 with large round aperture and very prominent star ; the star of the labellate corallites is not 

 distinct. Coenenchyma fragile and reticulate in section ; surface closely reticulate and 

 echinulate ; wall finely striate and echinulate near the base. 



The above description is based on the type in the Berlin Museum. Studer's figures 

 (woodcuts) do not give a good idea of the species, and the elongate Hp of the radial corallites 

 of the branchlets is not represented. / 



A specimen in the British Museum agrees in most points with the type specimen, but 

 the branchlets on the upper surface rarely exceed 5 mm. in diameter. The axial corallites 

 have only six septa, but they are very prominent and nearly meet in the middle line. The 

 star of the prominent radial corallites is scarcely recognizable ; the outer directive septum is 

 the first to be developed, then the inner one, and finally the remaining primaries in immersed 

 or subimmersed corallites. The specimen forms a vase 36 cm. in diameter and 16 cm. high, 

 with a short subcentral pedicel. 



Singapore (Berlin Museum), 

 a. ? ? 93. 4. 7. 121. 



88. Madrepora candelabrum. 

 Madrepora candelabrum, Studer, MB. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1878, p. 528, pi. ii. fig. 3. 



Corallum spreading horizontally from a lateral pedicel ; branches coalescent and flattened 



