[UIUVBB.5ITT] 



TRIBE I. ASTRjEACEA. 215 



12. A. ORBICELLA STELLULATA. (Ellis.} 



A. convexa et scepe undulata; polypis 1^'" latis, discis raro gemmatis et 

 dichasticis ; lamellis 24. Corallum subcellulosum ; cellis orbiculatis, 

 I'" latis, raro oblongis, vix profundis ; lamellis tenuibus, supra septum 

 regulariter prominulis ; inter st^tiis scepius concavis: transverse secto, 

 septis subsolidis, interdum cdlulis interrupt^ uniseriatis, et rarissime 

 biseriatis; stettis 10-12 r adits et aliis intermediis obsoktis. 



Convex and often undulate ; polyps l lines broad, disks sometimes 

 budding and dichastic; 24 internal lamellae. Corallum subcellular; 

 cells orbiculate, 1 line broad, rarely oblong ; lamellae thin, a little 

 prominent above the septum, and evenly so ; interstices usually 

 concave, yet often entire: in a transverse section, septa solid or 

 nearly so, sometimes with cellules interruptedly uniseriate, and oc- 

 casionally biseriate; stars 10 to 12-rayed, other intermediate rays 

 obsolete. 



Plate 10, figure 7 a, transverse section, natural size; b, vertical 

 section, do. 



West Indies. 



In a transverse sectional view, the stellulata has considerable resem- 

 blance to the annularis, but the septum is much more solid, and cel- 

 lules are only occasionally observed. It resembles also the stettigera; 

 but the lamellae of the surface are alternately smaller, and the stars, 

 in a transverse section, have more rays, and a less solid centre. From 

 the intersepta, it differs in its even entire lamellae, not truncate, and in 

 its more solid texture. 



This species grows to a breadth of five inches or more. 



Mad. stellulata, Ellis and Solander, 165, , Lamouroux, Exp. Meth. 58, pi. 53, 



tab. 53, figs. 3, 4, this figure is nearly figs. 3 and 4; Encyc. 131, pi. 486, figs, 



correct. The texture is well shown in 3 and 4. 



fig. 3, and the unequal lamelte, with The Astrea stellulata of Lamarck (p. 408, 



about ten larger, and a distinct, rather No. 12), under which this author refers, 



prominent bottom, in fig. 4. The cells with a query to Ellis's figure, is a diffe- 



are more distant in figure 3 than in the rent species, placed in the genus Astraeo- 



specimens met with. Ellis's specimen pora by Blainville, and so described in 



appears to have been partly worn. this work. 



