MADEEPOEA. 145 



majority are subimmersed or immersed with an aperture of 2 mm. ; between these a number 

 of stout, prominent, proliferous corallites occur, 4 to 15 mm. long; a few form branchlets 

 7 cm. in length, and are again proliferous. The wall is extremely porous and reticulate, 

 scarcely striate. 



Indian Ocean : Red Sea, Maldive Islands, Ceylon. 



a. Galle, Ceylon. Dr. Ondaatje [P.]. 83. 4. 26. 2. 



h. Maldive Islands. Colonial Exhibition. 86. 11. 22. 1. (Var. spongiosa.) 



B. Branches stout and usually acervate, sometimes with more than one axial corallite. 

 Radial corallites appressed ; wall thick and margin rounded. 



149. Uadrepora humilis. 



Madrepora humilis, Dana, Zoophytes, p. 483, pi. xli. fig. 4, pi. xxxi. fig. 4 ; M.-Edwards & Haime 

 Coralliaires, t. iii. p. 147 ; Eathbiin, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1887, vol. x. p. 16. 



Corallum low, fruticose, spreading and short, stout, ramose, subproliferous ; branches 

 terete, obtuse, 12 to 16 mm. thick. Axial corallites 4 to 4*5 mm. diameter, scarcely exsert. 

 Radial corallites equal and even, somewhat crowded (Dana's figure shows them rather distant), 

 very stout, neat nariform, 2 mm. diameter, becoming less prominent below ; aperture oblong. 

 Star scarcely distinct, the directive septa prominent and nearly meeting below. (Dana.) 



Rathbun records another specimen 24 cm. broad and 11 cm. high. The base is much 

 thickened, the longest branch being only 6'5 cm. and the stoutest 1"8 cm. thick. 



The fragments in the Saville-Kent Collection consist of very blunt asparagus-like branches, 

 very closely covered with echinulate plates, which give a glaucous appearance on the surface. 

 The radial corallites are narrow, appressed, subnariform, and usually quite isolated, as shown 

 in Dana's figure, but in one specimen they are rather crowded. The branches are 2 cm. 

 thick and 9 to 14 cm. long, little divided, except near the apex. Axial corallites 5 to 6 mm. 

 diameter, hemispherical. Radial corallites on the distal parts stouter than those below, 

 hemicotyloid, nariform or cochleariform, with thick wall and rounded margin, appressed 

 above; but many are wart-like and subercct towards the base ; length 2 to 3 mm., diameter 

 1"5 to 3 mm., average about 2 mm. The star usually consists of 6 septa, the directives 

 stouter and broader than the others ; sometimes they bear lateral processes. 



Fiji Islands ; Great-Barrier Reef. 



a, b. Palm Island. Saville-Kent Coll. 92. 6. 8. 58 & 59. 



c. Adolphus Island. Saville-Kent Coll. 92. 6. 8. 239. 



150. Madrepora brueggemanni. (Plate XXIV. and Plate XXXV. fig. E.) 



Madrepora laxa, Briiggemann {non Lamarck), Abh. naturw. Ver. Bremen, 1877, Bd. v. p. 544 ; Studer, 



Mitth. naturf. Ges. Bern, 1880, p. 18 ; Ortmann, Zool. JB. 1888, Bd. iii. p. 149. 

 Madrepora aeervata, Studer {non Dana). Mitth. naturf. Ges. Bern, 1880, p. 22. 

 ? Madrepora pelewensis, Kehberg, Abhand. nat. Ver. Hamburg, 1892, Bd. xii. p. 41, pi. iii. fig. 11. 



