TRIBE III. MADREPORACEA. 447 



Short pedicellate cespitose, broad, a little convex, branches openly 

 reticulato-coalescent; below, a few naked branchlets appressed into 

 the plane of the frond ; above, branchlets very evenly terete, 2 

 inches long and scarcely \ of an inch thick, nearly simple. Co- 

 rallum with the branchlets obtuse, calicles short labellate, crowded 

 imbricate, a line broad, star indistinct, two of the lamellae very 

 prominent ; apical calicle nearly a line broad arid J a line exsert ; 

 calicles of the marginal branchlets very much spreading. 



Plate 33, fig. 2, part of corallum, natural size ; 2 a, branchlet, ditto. 



East Indies, where it is common. Exp. Exp. 



This species is remarkable for its gracefully branched frond, its 

 even cylindrical branchlets covered very neatly and closely with thin 

 and fragile calicles. The spreading calicles of the outer branchlets 

 contrast strongly with the close imbrication of those within. The 

 fronds grow to a foot and a half or more in diameter; they are some- 

 times attached by one side, and at others have a broad central pedicel. 

 The thickness from the under surface to the tips of the branchlets is 

 about three inches. 



The branchlets are not tapering, and have much closer calicles 

 than the surculosa, and besides are not proliferous at apex ; they are 

 much longer and larger than in the spicifera. The frond is sometimes 

 solid at centre below. 



Hctcmjjom millepora, Ehrenberg, G. Ixix. Madrepora corymbosa, in part, Lamarck, 

 sp. 5. No. 4. 



12. MADREPORA PROSTRATA. (Dana.} 



M. cespitosa, prostrata, summitate plana, ramis remote coalitis ; infra 

 non complanatis, ramulis paucis, cellis immersis ; supra ramulis bate 

 cylindricis, subsimplicibus, \" crassis : polypis viridibus tentaculorum 

 uno longiore. Corallum ramulis obtusis, caliculo apicali curto, '" 

 lato ; aliis confertis, labellatis, latis et patentibus, labello valde com- 

 planato, cellis stellatis, duabus lamellis paulo latioribus. 



Cespitose, prostrate, with a flat top, branches remotely coalescing; 

 below, not flattened, branchlets few, and cells all immersed; above, 

 branchlets neatly cylindrical, nearly simple, \ of an inch thick: 



