TRIBE III. MADREPORACEA. 445 



below, are muricate nearly like those above. The calicles near the 

 apex are one to one and a half lines in length. The specimen in the 

 collections is a vase five inches across, on a short stout pedicel. The 

 tips of the branches when fresh have a violet tinge. 



10. MADREPORA SURCULOSA. (Dana.} 



M. cespitosa, breviter crasso-pedicellata, hta, vix concava aut convexius- 

 cula,fronde 1^-2" crassd, ramis coalitis ; infra, compkmatis, ramulis 

 nullis ; supra, ramulis crebris, erectis, spidformibus, et subacutis, 1-2" 

 longis, sape paulum angulosis, apice proliferis. Corallum ramu- 

 lorum caliculis confertis vix labellatis, 1-1 J'" longis, lobelia elongate 

 non complanato; subapicalibus minirnis ; apicali cylindrico |'" lato ; 

 stella inconspicud. 



Short and stout pedicellate, broad, and slightly concave, flat or a little 

 convex; frond 1 to 2 inches thick, branches coalescing; below, 

 flattened, and with no spreading branchlets ; above, branchlets 

 crowded, erect, spike-shape, tapering, and nearly acute, 1 to 2 inches 

 long, often a little angular, proliferous at apex. Branchlets of the 

 corallum with crowded calicles, 1 to 1^ lines long, scarcely label- 

 late, elongated lip not flattened, the subapical calicles becoming 

 very small, the apical cylindrical, and f of a line broad ; star in- 

 distinct. 



Plate 32, fig. 4, corallum (small specimen), natural size; 4 a, 

 branchlet, ditto; fig. 5, probably the same, from Tahiti. 



Society and Feejee Islands, and East Indies. Exp. Exp. 



The clumps of this very common species are nearly flat above, with 

 a stout and short pedicel below. They grow to a breadth of eighteen 

 inches or more. The pedicel enlarges upward, and often the frond is 

 solid below for half its diameter. The branchlets are tapering and 

 subacute, and near the summit very many are peculiarly proliferous 

 with several rudimentary branchings or cylindrical calicles: at base 

 they are often half an inch through and angular, appearing to consist 

 of two or three coalesced branchlets. The branchlets of the margin 

 are neatly tapering, and their calicles are scarcely more spreading than 

 those of the inner branchlets. The under surface of the frond bears 



112 



