162 MADEEPOEAEIA. 



Tinder surface are fused into an almost solid plate, with a few short conical branchlets 

 pressed into the general plane ; surface naked, but with a few immersed corallites. The 

 branchlets on the upper surface are erect and proliferous, 1 cm. thick, and vary in different 

 specimens from 3 to 10 cm. in length. Axial corallites hemispherical, 3 to 4 mm. diameter. 

 Radial corallites nariform, with, towards the apex, a few tubular ones interspersed, which 

 represent new proliferations ; they are 2 to 4 mm. long and 2 mm. broad at the apex ; wall 

 thick, especially in the upper ones ; aperture round or oval, not large. Near the base of the 

 branches immersed corallites are numerous, and a few are scattered between the prominent 

 ones to near the apex. (Ortmann.) 



Ortmann remarks that the species resembles M. variabilis, Klz., but that it differs in the 

 complanate under surface and in the nariform rather than tubular radial corallites. There 

 are, however, many tubular corallites with a slit-like or oblique aperture in the type speci- 

 mens, and, seeing that the habit of M. variabilis is so varied, I think this form should 

 rank only as a variety. On the other hand, one specimen in the Jena Museum labelled 

 M. coalescens, var., appears to be more nearly allied to M. ceylonica. 



Indo-Pacific Ocean : Red Sea, Ceylon, Macclesfield Rank, Great-Rarrier Reef, Samoa, 

 Tongatabu. 



Forma pachy dados. 



a. Koseir, Red Sea. Dr. Klunzinger [C.]. 86. 10. 5. 6. 



6. Tongatabu. J. J. Lister, Esq. [P.]. 91.3.6.11. 



c. ? ? 58. 2. 10. 5. 



d. Capricorn Islands. Saville-Kent Coll. 92. 6. 8. 216. 



? e-h. Macclesfield Rank, 13 fath. H.M.S. 'Penguin.' 92. 10. 17. 67 to 70. 



? i. Macclesfield Rank, 18 to 28 fath. H.M.S. ' Penguin.' 92. 10. 17. 66. 



Forma leptoclados. 



a, b. Port Denison. Saville-Kent CoU. 92. 6. 8. 217 & 218. 



Forma coalescens. 



a-k. Ceylon. Haeckel Coll. 92. 12. 5. 9 to 16, 22, 24 & 32. 



172. Madrepora ceylonica. 



Madrepora ceylonica, Ortmam), Zool. JB. 1889, Bd. iv. p. 506, pi. xli. fig. 3. 

 Madrepora remota, Ortmaiin, loc. cit. p. 510, pi. xiii. fig. 6. 

 ^Madrepora valida, Ortmann, loc. cit. p. 506. 

 1 Madrepora secale, Ortmann, loc. cit. p. 510. 



Corallum consisting of a flattened clump of branches arising from an incrusting base, the 

 peripheral ones horizontal and fused together. Rranches angular, 5 cm. long, under 1 cm. 

 thick ; these bear below rather distant immersed corallites with a wide aperture (over 1 mm.) 

 and prominent star. Up to a point about 1'5 cm. from the apex the corallites are immersed, 

 with a few bursif orm ones interspersed. Near the apex appressed nariform or tubular corallites 

 occur, with somewhat thickened wall, 2 to 4 mm. long and 2 to 2*5 mm. thick, but always 

 ■with immersed and bursiform ones between. The apex of a branch is frequently occupied by 



