80 MADREPORARIA. 



The calicles range from about 1 • 25 mm. on the terminals, to 1 • 75 to 2 mm. on the thick 

 stems. The walls are broad, flat-topped, and solid-looking, as if composed of a thick, granular, 

 zigzag thread, with projecting septal points, all thick and as if about to fuse into a solid wall- 

 mass, striated across. The septal projections from the wall are blunt, rounded knobs. Within 

 the circle of these the fossa descends steeply as a subcircular pit, in which a ring of short, 

 stout, granular pali, with large rounded knobs, rises nearly flush with the wall, and there with 

 the columellar tubercle seeks to fill up the calicular depression. The whole surface of the 

 coral appears thus smooth, granular, and solid ; while in the section, the thick trabecular and 

 concentric elements form an irregular, close network, neither of them being regular or con- 

 spicuous. The elements rapidly thicken till the section becomes very compact, except right 

 in the axis, which consists of a delicate, streaming, axial network, which at the tips of terminals 

 appears at the surface. 



This coral, with the usual name P. davaria upon its label, is in very striking contrast to 

 No. 1 of this Bennuda group. Though in both cases the stems are short, they fork so rapidly 

 in No. 1 as to form very few neatly cylindrical stems, such as we have here ; while, lastly, the 

 surface of the colony is the direct opposite of this, it is a delicate raised filigree ; here it is all 

 smooth and flattened, the granular elements being thick and fused together into a nearly solid 

 layer. 



The only specimen known is that in the Cambridge University Museum. 



Dr. Verrill, in liis account of the Bermuda Islands (Trans. Connect. Acad., xi. pp. 485, 

 505), mentions large masses, 2 feet in diameter, of encrusting Pontes, which he called 

 P. astrcEoides, of a bright yellowish-brown colour, and also a branching form which he called 

 " P. davaria." 



Specimens called both " astrceoides " and " davaria " are recorded from Bermuda by 

 Mr. Eathbvm as being in the U.S. National Museum.* The astrceoides of Bermuda are said to 

 have larger calicles than those from Florida reefs, and to be one of the commonest in " the 

 shallow waters about the Bermuda reefs, ranging from low tide level to depths of 2 to 

 3 fathoms." 



Group VII.— SPECIMENS FROM UNKNOWN ATLANTIC OB, 

 WEST INDIAN LOCALITIES. 



This section contains descriptions of Porites from unrecorded localities, which, however, 

 are, either from the label or from other recognisable characteristics, known to belong to 

 these Atlantic and West Indian areas. The section thus contains descriptions of such 

 interesting forms as the original specimens of Lamarck's P. davaria and P.furcata, which as 

 imaginary species have so long dominated the minds of workers in this field. The descrip- 

 tions are based upon notes made in Paris soon after the completion of Vol. III. They were 



• See Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. x. (1887) p. 354. 



