554 ZOOPHYTES. 



3. PORITES CLAVARIA. (Ellis.) Lamarck. 



P. breviter cespitosa, 2" animata ; ramis flexuosis et incrassatis, late cla- 

 vatis, apice compressis et lobatis, 1-2" latis et 6-9'" crassis, interdum 

 subflabellatis, valde obtusis ; poly pis valde salientibus ; tentaculis albi- 

 dis, brevibus, disco brunneo, oris margine albo. Corallum porosissi- 

 mum, apice spongiosum, cellis paulum excavatis, subconicis aut fundo 

 plants, majusculis, (fere $'" latis) ; septis tenuibus, acutis. 



Short cespitose, alive for 2 inches; branches flexuous, and quite stout, 

 broad clavate, with the summits compressed and lobed, 1 to 2 

 inches broad, and to % of an inch thick, sometimes subflabellate, 

 very obtuse; polyps very salient; tentacles whitish, short, disk 

 brown, margin of the mouth white. Corallum very porous, spongy 

 at summit; cells shallow, subconical or plane within, rather large 

 (nearly | of a line broad) ; septa thin and acute. 



West Indies. Ellis. Lesueur. 



This species is remarkable for its short and stout, flexuous, club- 

 shaped branches, with the summits of the corallum spongy. They 

 are scarcely over an inch in length, before furcation commences again. 

 The cells are rather large (eight to nine being counted in half an 

 inch), but they have not the broad and obtuse septa of the following 

 species. The polyps were examined by Lesueur. 



Mad. porites, Ellis and Solander, 172, tab. Porites clavaria, in part, Lamk., ii. 435, 

 47, fig. 1; a characteristic figure, but the No. 5. 



cells are rather large, and too distant, and , Lamour., Exp., 61, tab. 47, fig. 1. 



the line between the live and dead por- , Lesueur, Mem. du Mus., vi., 289, fig. 



tion is not distinguished ; the enlarged 17, pi. 17. 



view is good. , Blainville, Man., 396. 



4. PORITES FLEXUOSA. (Dana.) 



P. breviter cespitosa, 2" animata; ramis fiexuosis, divaricatis, brevibus, 

 |" crassis, apice dilatatis, valde obtusis aut subtruncatis, interdum 

 subflabellatis, 1" latis et lobatis. Corallum fere porosissimum, apice 

 spongiosum, cellis grandibus fere *'" latis, paulum excavatis, fundo 

 plants, septis obtusis. 



