64 MADREPORARIA. 



These Gonioporce differ from all the foregoing from Australia. There are three specimens. 

 One very large, smooth, nearly globular mass, slightly flattened at the top, 10 cm. high and 

 about 14 cm. in diameter (PI. XII. fig. 5). Figs. 5 and 6, PI. IV., are both from this specimen, 

 and show the wall- variations on different portions of its upper surface. The lateral calicles 

 are not shown. Fig. 4 is from another specimen (see PI. XII. fig. 6), which had suffered some- 

 what from foreign organisms. For instance, in fig. 5, the columellar tangle rises up among 

 the septa, but in fig. 4 the septa run over the top of it and obscure it. This may be another 

 case of calicle variation due to abnormal growth conditions. One of the peculiar features of 

 the large specimen is the symmetrical reticulum of the thickened walls, which shows a regu- 

 larity of structure almost unique, and this not only laterally but over a large part of the upper 

 surface where the calicles are very deep (cf. figs. 4 and 5 with fig. 6). These have lost their 

 polygonal outline and become cylindrical, with apparently only twelve thin septa and large 

 interseptal loculi. 



This coral belongs to the group in which the calicles are deep and only form rosettes on 

 the large, prominent columellar tangles in the lateral calicles. 



a, h, c. Zool. Dept. 94. 6. 16. 10. 11. and 19. 



33. Goniopora Australia a.* 



[' Les mers de la Nouvelle Hollande,' coll. Peron et Le Sueur ; Paris Museum.] 



Astrcea calyatlaris, Lamarck, Animaux sans Vert., ii. (1816) p. 266. 



Rhodaraa calicuiaris, M.-Edwards and Haime (non Quelch, see p. 68), Brit. Foss. Corals, Introd. (1850), 

 p. 56. 



Description. — Corallum convex, small, 3*5 by 2*5 cm., a well-developed epitheca round 

 the new edges, which are 2 mm. thick. 



Calicles round, deep, 3 mm. in diameter, cylindrical, with young calicles in the angles. 

 The walls vary in thickness, when thin they are very fenestrated, built of septal trabeculse 

 arranged in a slight zigzag, when thickened they form an angular reticulum. The trabeculse 

 are slightly flattened and project so as to denticulate the inner margin. The three cycles of 

 septa are incomplete rows of short sharp teeth. The primaries and secondaries seen from 

 above alone curve forward to join the columellar tangle. This tangle is very pronounced, 

 irregular in outline, appears almost solid and with knobbed surface, 5-6 of these knobs form 

 somewhat thick angular palL The centre is sometimes occupied by a tubercle, but always 

 appears to fill up faster than the peripheral parts of the fossa. 



This description is taken from the only coral I found in the Paris Museum winch 

 had any claim to be Lamarck's original specimen. It is a young colony, and interesting 

 because except for Mad. intersepta {v. p. 160) it was the first Goniopora to be described, being 

 placed among the Astraeids by Lamarck. The chief structural feature of the specimen is the 

 large, prominent, knobbed, and nearly solid columellar tangle standing up high in the fossa. 



Peron's expedition did not touch the east coast of Australia north of Port Jackson, and 

 there are no specimens from the western coast in the British Museum Collection from 



* On the designation G. Australia a see the prefatory note to Group XIV. p. 156. 



