TRIBE II I. MADREPORACEA. 54 1 



which might well be a fragment from the specimen here described, 

 except that the cells are much too large. (Fig. 1, corallum, natural 

 size ; 1 b, tubes of a transverse section, enlarged ; 1 a, surface, en- 

 larged.) 



Coralloidcs cceri/lca Piidlipensis, Pettiver, Mad. ccerulea, Esper, Fortsetz., i. 3, tab. 



Gazoph., tab. 10, figs. 1, 2. 32 ; an indifferent figure. 



llU/cpora ccerulea, Ellis and Sol., 142, and Pocillopora ccerulea, Lamk., ii. 444, No. 7. 



Mad. interstincta, ibid. ,'167, tab. 56, , Lamour., Exp., 62, pi. 56, figs. 1-3. 



figs. 1-3 ; a characteristic figure of one Heliopora ccerulea, Blainville, Man., 392, 



of its various forms: also, tab. 12, fig. 2, pi. 61, fig. 3 ; a figure of a fragment. 



at bottom. , Quoy and Gaymard, Voy. de 1'Ast., 



Millepara ccerulea, Pallas, Zooph., 256, iv., 252, pi. 20, figs. 12-14; an indiffe- 



No. 158. rent figure of a fragment, with a repre- 

 , Ehrenb., G. Ixxiv., sp. 1. sentation of the polyps. 



GENUS VIII. HELIOLITES. GUETTARD. 



Favositidce glomerate ; cellis coralli majusculis, remotis, interstitiis om- 

 nino cellulosis et non tubulatis. 



Glomerate ; cells of the corallum rather large, distant ; interstices cel- 

 lular throughout, and not tubular. 



The Heliolites are closely related to the Helioporse, but the inter- 

 stices are irregularly cellular, and, in some species, they wear away 

 on exposure, leaving the tubular cells standing out, like cylindrical 

 columns, quite disunited, except an occasional transverse plate. The 

 cells contain twelve short rays or striations, and around the aperture 

 twelve granules may generally be distinguished, situated like those of 

 the Heliopores. The transverse septa are very numerous, as in the 

 Favosites. 



The species of Heliolites have been referred to the genera Astraea, 

 Porites, and Millepora, from which they are far removed. Their dis- 

 tinctive peculiarities were long since understood and appreciated by 

 Blainville, who instituted the genus Heliopora to receive them and 

 the recent H. ccerulea. The character of the interstices give them a 

 different appearance and habit, sufficient, perhaps, to authorize our 



130 



