TRIBE I. ASTR^ACEA. 307 



troughs or basins. They occasionally attain a length of a foot or 

 more. The whole surface is crowdedly echinate below. When alive 

 the general umber tint above, in some species, appears sprinkled with 

 bright green, from the mouths and short tentacles : the latter are mere 

 inflations of the membrane over the lamellae around each, mouth. 

 The Herpetolithi are confined to the warm coral-reef seas. 

 / 

 Arrangement of the Species. 



*1. H. limacinus. 4. H. stellaris. 



2. H. interruptus. *5. H. strictus. 



*3. H. (oliosus. *6. H. crassus. 



1. HERPETOLITHUS LIMACINUS. (Lamarck.} Eschscholtz. 



H. angusto-oblongus,planiusculus out convexus. Corallum lamellis laxis, 

 raro pollice longioribus, nee radiantibus. 



Narrow oblong, nearly flat or convex. Corallum with the lamellae lax, 

 rarely an inch long, not radiating. 



Plate 20, fig. 2, profile of vertical section ; 2 a, form of corallum ; 2, 

 b, c, d, outline of lamellae. 



East Indies. Exp. Exp. 



The specimens in the Expedition collections from Singapore are 

 nearly flat, undulate, and somewhat distorted. They measure ten 

 inches in length, three in breadth, and half to three-quarters of an inch 

 in thickness. The lamellae are distant nearly a line as is well shown 

 in Ellis's figure. The spines of the under surface are very short, and 

 not in series except near the margin. One specimen examined is 

 seventeen inches long, and deeply concave below (about one and a 

 quarter inches). The spines below are slender points, which are 

 every where crowded. Besides the medial line of oririmes, there are 

 also two lateral imperfect series, near the middle of each lateral half of 

 the corallum. 



Mad . pileus, Ellis and Solander, 159, tab. Pung'ia Umax, Oken, Zool. i. 74. 



45 ; a good figure. Fungialimacina, (in part,) Lamk., ii. 373; 

 Mad. lima, Esper, Fortsetz. i. 77, tab. 63 ; No. 7. 



a reduced copy of Ellis's figure. 



