TRIBE II. C ARYOPHYLLACEA. 397 



The Mediterranean Sea. Esper. Off Marseilles, at a depth of 150 

 fathoms. Marsilli. 



This slender branching species differs from the diffusa and pattens, 

 in having the calicles towards the summit of the branchlets erect 

 instead of oblique, and the alternate arrangement often gives the 

 slender branches a zigzag form. The upper branchlets are about an 

 eighth of an inch in' diameter, and an inch to an inch and a half in 

 length. It grows to a height of eight inches or more. 



Madrepore avec des rameaux a calices et very similar to that by Marsilli, presenting 



blanc comme du corail, Marsilli, Hist. slender, divaricate, flexuous branches, 



Phys. de la Mer., 139, tab. 30, fig. 140, with short erect calicles, faintly striate 



with enlarged details in figs. 141, 142, without, containing about twenty-four 



143. equal lamellae, a little exsert. 



Mad. virginea, Linn., Syst. Nat., ed. xii. Acroporaalha,&,c.. (?), Gualtieri Index, &c., 



1281 : " M. caulescens, subdichotoma frontispiece, 



recta, solida, stellis alternis eminentibus." Matrcpora virginea, Oken, Zool., i. 72. 



, Pallas, Zooph., No. 180. Oculina virginea, in part, Lamarck, 455. 



, Esper, i. 112, tab. 14. This figure is , Blainv., Man., 380. 



9. OCULINA DIFFUSA. (Lamarck.} 



0. pumila, ramosissima, diffusa, ramis divaricatis et scepe coalitis, 

 ramulis ^-1" longis et 1^'" crassis. Corallum caliculis prominulis, 

 1'" latis, numerosis, inferne erectis cum bast radiate striatd, superne 

 valde obliquis, minoribus, et aperturd ellipticis ; lamellis paululum 

 exsertis, subcequalibus. 



Small, much branched, branches divaricate, and often coalescing, 

 upper branchlets to 1 inch long, TO of an inch thick. Corallum 

 with the calicles a little prominent, 1 line broad, rather numerous, 

 below, erect, with the base around radiately striate, above, very 

 oblique, smaller and elliptical ; lamellse a little exsert, even. 



West Indies. Mauger. Lesueur. 



A small species, much branched, with the branchlets short, and 

 calicles crowded at the summits. 



Oculina diffusa, Lamk., ii. 456, No. 3. Oculina pattens, var. a. Ehrenb., G. xlviii. 

 , Blainv., Man., 380. sp. 4. 



100 



