TRIBE III. MADREPORACEA. 555 



Short cespitose, alive for 2| inches ; branches flexuous, divaricate, 

 quite short, J to of an inch thick, dilated at apex, very obtuse or 

 subtruncate, sometimes subflabellate, 1 inch broad, and lobed. Co- 

 rallurn quite porous, spongy at apex ; cells large (nearly $ of a line 

 broad), shallow, flat at bottom, septa obtuse. 



Barbadoes, West Indies. 



The habit of this species is much like that of the davaria, but the 

 branches are smaller, the cells of the corallum larger, the septa obtuse, 

 and one-third as broad as the breadth of the cell. There are about 

 seven cells to a breadth of half an inch. 



5. PORITES FURCATA. (Lamarck.) 



P. breviter cespitosa, 1-1 J" animata, tortuose ramosa, ramis divaricatis, 

 compressiusculis, J-" crassis, interdum 1" latis, et subflabettatis ; 

 apice subtruncatis, furcatis et tri-furcatis. Corallum porosius, apice 

 subspongiosum ; cellis parvulis, viz '" latis, paulum excavatis, sub- 

 conicis aut f undo plants, septis tenuibus et acutis. 



Short cespitose, alive for 1 to 1J inches, tortuously ramose, branches 

 divaricate, somewhat compressed, to \ an inch thick, sometimes 

 1 inch broad, and subflabellate; apex subtruncate, furcate or tri- 

 furcate. Corallum quite porous, apex rather spongy ; cells small, 

 scarcely of a line broad, a little excavate, subconical or flat at 

 bottom ; septa thin and acute. 



West Indies. 



This species has the habit of the flexuosa, but the cells of the co- 

 rallum are much smaller, and the live part is but an inch or rarely an 

 inch and a half in length. The above description is drawn from spe- 

 cimens from Barbadoes, and agrees with Lamarck's. The colour of 

 the specimen is a dark brown, as far as alive ; below this it is white 

 with incrusting Nullipores. 



Porites furcata, Lamk., ii. 437, No. 8. The Forties flabeUiformis, of Lesueur, 



Helioparafurcata, Blainville, Man., 392. (Mem. du Mus., vi. 289,) may be iden- 



tical with the above. 



