TRIBE I. ASTR^EACEA. 165 



site approach at the centre of a cell to within a sixteenth of an inch. 

 The cells when simple but little exceed half an inch in breadth; but 

 they often widen in one direction to nearly an inch. The branches 

 are about an inch and a quarter long before furcation. 



The Madrepora capitata of Esper, (Pfianz. Fortsetz., i. 102, tab. 81, fig. 1,) 

 may be identical with the above. The branches are represented as longer (about one 

 and a half inches) before furcating, and less divaricate ; but in the size of the calicles 

 and their ribbed and spinulous exterior, they are quite similar. Lamarck refers to 

 Esper's figure and species as a variety of the " Caryophyllia fastigiata," a species of 

 Mussa. 



9. EUPHYLLIA APERTA. (Dana.) 



E. furcato-ramosa, hemispherica, discis scepius simplicibus. Corallum 

 ramis %" crassis, subdivaricatis, brevibus, caliculis subturbinatis, %" 

 longis et latis, remote costatis, cum costis leviter denticulatis et infra 

 obsokscentibus ; lamellis paucis, tenuibus, 1'" exsertis, majoribus valde 

 latis |" remotis apice oblique truncatis, et scepius und angustissimd 

 intermedia. 



Furcato-ramose, hemispherical, with the disks mostly simple. Coral- 

 lurn having the branches | of an inch thick, subdivaricate, short, 

 calicles subturbinate, | of an inch long and broad, remotely costate, 

 with the ridges somewhat denticulate and below becoming obsoles- 

 cent; lamellae few, thin, about 1 line exsert, the larger quite broad 

 and obliquely truncate at top, of an inch apart, and usually with 

 one quite small intermediate lamella. 



West Indies ? 



This species resembles much the aspera, but the lamella of the 

 calicles, and the ridges of the exterior, are fewer and more distant ; 

 the appearance of the cell is much more open, and the internal texture 

 consists of large open cellules. 



NOTE. The Madrepora fastigiata of Pallas (Elench. Zooph. No. 175), thus described, 

 "M. dichotoma, fastigiata, stellis terminalibus, subturbinatis, lamellis integerrimis," Seba, 

 tab. 109, fig. 1, is near the above, yet appears to be a distinct species. The lamellae in 

 Seba's figure are a little exsert, and the calicles are two-thirds of an inch in diameter, 

 with the exterior striate, and the line between the live extremity and the part below, 

 strongly marked. Seba says that the lamella; are very thin " nequaquam serratte sint, 

 sed cuspidntoe et equabilem veluti cultri aciem abeant." Seba states that his specimen 

 came from the shores of Curafoa, in the Caribbean Sea. 



42 



