158 MADEEPOEARIA. 



d-j. Red Sea? Purchased. 40. 5. 7. 27 to 29, 31 to 33 & 8 



k, I. Wreck Bay, Great-Barrier Reef. J. B. Jukes, Esq. [P.], 46. 7. 30. 7 & 35. 



m. Maldive Islands. Purchased. 86. 11. 22. 9. 



167. Madrepora guppyi. (Plate XXIII. fig. D.) 

 Madrepora gwppyi. Brook, Ann. Mag. N. H. 1892, vol. x. p. 458. 



Corallum hroad, flattened, cespitose ; base 17 cm. diameter, height about 7 cm. ; marginal 

 branches subhorizontal, rather small and crowded ; the others simple or subsimple, conical, 

 the central ones erect, those nearer the margin radiating ; apices rather far apart, often 4 cm. 

 or more ; diameter 2 to 2'5 cm. near the base, length 4 to 65 cm., regularly tapering to a 

 blunt apex. Axial corallites 3'5 to 5 mm. diameter, hemispherical or scarcely exsert. Radial 

 corallites small, very crowded and spreading, regular, subequal and usually thin-walled, 

 frequently a little compressed, half-tubiform with a rounded apex, or gutter-shaped, or a few 

 with curved lower wall are cymbiform ; length 1-5 to 2 mm., diameter 1'2 to 1"5 mm. ; those 

 situated near the apex of a branch are shortest, those below gradually become longer and 

 stouter ; a variable number of immersed corallites are scattered between the others ; near the 

 base of some of the branches the corallites are thickened and may be 2 mm. diameter. The 

 apex of a branch in several cases forms the habitation of a Cirripede. Star not well developed 

 in the radial corallites, often only the directive septa are recognizable, in the immersed 

 corallites even these are extremely narrow. Corallum dense ; surface spongy-echinulate ; wall 

 finely striato-echinulate. 



Solomon Islands. 



a. Shortland Island, Solomon Islands. Dr. Guppy [P.]. 84. 12. 11. 18. (Type.) 



168. Madrepora baecdactyla. (Plate XIII. figs. A, B.) 



Madrepora seriata, Bruggemann {non Ehrenberg), Phil. Trans. 1879, vol. clxviii. p. 575. 

 1 Madrepora haitnei, Briiggemann (part.), loc. cit. p. 575. 

 Madrepora bceodadyla. Brook, Ann. Mag. N. H. 1892, vol. x. p. 453. 



Corallum low, flattened cespitose from a broad incrusting base. The largest specimen is 

 oval and measures 20 cm. by 14 cm., and is 5 cm. high. Branches erect, digitiform, simple or 

 proliferous, the marginal ones oblique, apex blunt or conical ; length 3 to 4 cm., diameter 7 

 to 10 mm. J in some specimens the majority of the central branches are simple, in others 

 divided into 2 to 6 more or less radiating twigs. Axial corallites 2 to 3-5 mm. diameter, 

 scarcely exsert or short and tapering, margin much rounded. Radial corallites chiefly open- 

 nariform or gutter-shaped with an oblique apex, lower border of the wall almost horizontal ; 

 length 1-3 to 2 mm. rarely more, diameter 1*6 mm., becoming shorter and subimmersed 

 below. Wall usually thin and margin not rounded, but in one specimen from Rodriguez, which 

 does not difier in other respects, the wall is thicker, the aperture correspondingly smaller, 

 and the margin somewhat rounded (fig. A). In another Rodriguez specimen the radial 



