166 ON THE SOLITARY CORALS, COLLECTED BY DR A. WILLEY. 



This species is extremely variable in its mode of growth, some of the specimens 

 being very short but with their calices almost as large as that of the largest specimen 

 the dimensions of which are given above. In the smaller specimens the calice tends 

 to be more rounded but all its general characters, as given above, are clearly marked. 

 Some of the specimens are attached together, as if growing from a stolon, but there 

 does not seem to be any continuity between them, and the corallites so attached are 

 of approximately the same size. 



Family. Astraeidae, Dana. 

 GENUS. Lithophyllia, Milne-Edwards and Haime. 



7. Lithophyllia vitiensis (Briiggemann). 



Scolymia vitiensis, Briiggemann, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 4, xx. p. 304 (1877). 



I have referred one specimen about 13 cm. in extreme height by 3 cm. in greatest 

 diameter to this species. The corallum is very irregular in shape, the base having 

 evidently been much worn away by boring organisms, etc. The calice is shallow and 

 considerably filled up by endotheca. The cycles of septa are in parts of the calice 

 rather more distinct from one another than in the type, and the septal teeth are less 

 obtuse. 



Loc. Sandal Bay, Lifu ; shallow water. 



8. Lithophyllia pulata, n. sp. (Fig. 6.) 



The corallum is short and very thin with no distinct epitheca. The costae are 

 not pronouncedly marked, but extend down as far as the body-wall and are armed 

 with a number of small, closely set, bluntly pointed teeth. 



The septa are very densely granulated at their sides and extend to the columella. 

 There are three complete cycles and six systems ; the fourth cycle is nearly complete, 

 and in some of the systems a few spines represent septa of a fifth cycle. The 

 primaries are very thick and distinct, extending inwards at first horizontally with very 

 ragged and broken spiny edges without any large teeth ; they then slope steeply with 

 smooth edges towards the columella, before which they generally end each with a 

 large blunt tooth or paliform lobe, rising vertically upwards for 2 — 2'5 mm. The 

 secondaries are similar in appearance, but towards the columella are very thin with a 

 tew pointed teeth and no paliform lobes. The tertiaries and quaternaries are much 

 thinner with numerous subequal pointed teeth. The columella is small and rather 

 open, being formed by the fusion of a large number of small crimpled trabeculae from 

 the septal edges. 



Diameter of the calice 1"7 — 2 cm. 



Loc. Sandal Bay, Lifu ; shallow water. One specimen. 



The single specimen has been attacked and worn away almost to the edge of 

 the calice by incrusting nullipores, etc., so that the costae are scarcely visible. The 

 edge of the calice is rather irregular, the polyp, wherever the nullipore is advancing, 

 endeavouring to grow out above it. 



