MALAY ARCHIPELAGO GONIOPOILK. 69 



In the vertical sections of the stock the walls, as long stout lamella 1 with minute pores, 

 are in striking contrast with the light axial reticulum which forms the intracalicular skeleton. 

 The septa are hardly recognisable, being merely the threads which attach the reticulum to the 

 walls. 



The single specimen of this coral was named by Mr. Quelch " Bhodarcea calicularis" 

 Lamarck and Milne-Edwards and Haime. But the descriptions given by the latter authors 

 of the method of growth, and of the large calicles with prominent pali, which last are here 

 only present in the lateral calicles, hardly agree. 



The specimen is a sector knocked out of a nearly globular mass, whicli must have been 

 20 cm. across and some 14 cm. high. Its method of attachment is not shown. 



In the details of its structure it stands quite alone. The thin lamellated walls of the 

 calicle on the top give it a honeycomb appearance not common in the genus, while in vertical 

 section the reduction of the intracalicular skeleton to a delicate axial reticulum, in strong 

 contrast with the solid walls, is quite a remarkable feature. 



The lateral calicles well exemplify the rule that in reverting to the primitive type they 

 are modified, so as to have a strong family likeness to those characteristic of the specimen. 

 (Introduction, p. 25.) 



". Zool. Dept. 86. 12. 9. 305. 



38. Goniopora Philippines (4) 3. 



[Santa Cruz Major Island, off Zamboanga, 10 fathoms, coll. H.M.S. ' Challenger ' ; 



British Museum.] 



Rkodarwa tenuidens, Quelch (parlim), Chall. Kept., xvi. (1886) p. 188. 



Description. — Corallum almost globular, enveloping the point of a calcareous algal con- 

 cretion, with edge either closely encrusting or freely drooping, with prominent epitheca. 



Calicles slightly funnel-shaped, 3 mm. across and about 2 mm. deep. Walls simple, stout, 

 and very fenestrated, frilled and ragged at the edges ; the trabecule composing them being 

 thick and of irregular outline and joined irregularly, sometimes in a slight zigzag. The 

 septa are very irregular interrupted rows of small frosted knobs or jagged flame-like points. 

 The three cycles are distinct. The primaries and secondaries project in the base of the calicle to 

 form a very open ill-defined columellar tangle from which the pali arise as tall, frosted or 

 jagged, slightly flattened and twisted points. A central tubercle is sometimes developed. 

 The whole columellar tangle rises up on the base of the fossa. The fusions of the septa are 

 deep down and obscure, parts only of the typical septal formula can be made out. 



This is quite a young specimen, interesting because revealing the growth-form of a very 

 young colony. It shows no very close resemblance to any of the other Coniopores from the 

 Philippines, nor to the form from Amboyna (0. Moluccas 1), with which Mr. Quelch classed it. 

 There are no delicate filamentous septa and conspicuous plate-like pali, and the walls are much 

 stouter; see Table IV. C, p. 180. 



a. Zool. Dept. 86. 12. 9. 308. 



