TRIBE I. ASTR.&ACEA. 233 



Wake's Island, Pacific Ocean. Exp. Exp. 



This description is taken from a worn specimen, which is remark- 

 able for the depth and size of the cells, looking like impressions made 

 with the end of the finger. In a vertical section, the part below the 

 centre of a cell for a width of a third of an inch, is extremely cellular 

 or filamentous in structure; and in the septum, there is a vertical 

 series of lunate cellules, about a line wide, convex upward. Although 

 so cellular, the coral is still firm, owing to the stoutness of the lamellae 

 and of the parts of them which extend into the septa. 



b. Cellulis stellarum, corallo transverse secto, aut parce aut minime decompositis. 

 I. Collibus sulcatis aut integris ; lamellis incequalibus et incequaliter ezserlis. 



34. ASTRJEA VERSIPORA. (Lamarck.) 



A. subglobosa. Corallum ceUulosum, robustum ; cellis profundioribus, 

 subangulatis et scepe oblongis (46'"), intus subcoronatis ; collibus 

 sulcatis ; lamellis inaqualibus, et incequaliter exsertis, aspere den- 

 ticulatis, angustis, verticalibus. 



Subglobose. Corallum cellular, firm, surface rough ; cells deeper 

 than broad, subangular, and often oblong (4 to 6 lines), subcoronate 

 within ; ridges sulcate ; lamellae unequal and unequally exsert, 

 roughly denticulate, narrow, vertical. 



Plate 12, fig. 5 a, profile of cells, ridges, and lamellae, natural size ; 

 5 b, transverse section of corallum, natural size. 



East Indies. Lamarck. Red Sea. Ehrenberg. 



This coral resembles the denticulata in its ragged surface ; but 

 the sulcus is broader or more distinct, the cells are less regular, 

 usually smaller, and much deeper than their breadth. 



A specimen from Singapore, in the Expedition collections, has a 

 subglobose shape, and is four or five inches in diameter. The texture 

 is coarse cellular, with two rows of large cellules (seen in a transverse 

 section) along the septa. The stars are few-rayed, with rarely a 

 cross partition dividing the cellules. The coronal teeth are less pro- 

 minent and regular than in the denticulata, owing to the fact, that the 

 lamellae extend perpendicularly far below them before reaching the 



59 



