MATTH AT— RECENT COLONIAL ASTR^ID^ 51 



downwards. The convolutions oi' mesenteries are scarce to some distance below the 

 stomodfeum, becoming more abundant towards bases of polyps. Tentacles corresponding 

 in number and position with entocoeles and exocoeles. The stomodeeum is much compressed 

 laterally, with diameters 1 mm. and '4 mm. ; its ridges are somewhat thicker than in 

 the next species, those of adjacent mesenteries of neighbouring primary couples sometimes 

 fusing in the upper part of the stomodaeum as in Goniastrea retiformis. Nematocysts I 

 are rare in the ridges and in the straight regions of mesenterial filaments. 



The endoderm is extremely thin in the region of the terminal batteries, non-vacuolated 

 and with a row of algse, below this vacuolated and transparent with very few algse as in 

 E. hirsutissima but not quite so thick as the sub-terminal batteries ; stomodseal endoderm 

 is thicker than in the same species owing to greater vacuolation; mesenterial endoderm 

 behind filament not so thickened. 



Gonads were not present in any of the polyps sectioned. Polyps examined, four — 

 two from one specimen and two from a second, both from Hulule, Maldives. 



B. Corallum,. Of the six specimens in the Paris Museum referred by Milne Edwards 

 and Haime to E. 7'osularia, five belong to the present species ; of these, two large ones 

 from Seychelles (the larger measuring 26 x 19 cm.) have the sa.me facies as many of my 

 examples from Seychelles, being thin and folded with poorly developed columellse ; another 

 specimen from the same locality is denser, up to 1"5 cm. thick, with most of the corallites 

 level, perithecal spines thicker and columella better developed, about -j width of calyx ; 

 the remaining two specimens are smaller, a rubbed one from Red Sea (15x8 cm.) 

 and another (9 X 7 cm.) from Australia. A specimen (13*5 x 12 cm.) from Singapore 

 named E. Jlexuosa, Verrill, has corallites on both sides of the corallum. Four cylindrical 

 examples from Fiji (the longest 9 cm.), named E. horrida, Dana, have a tree-like mode 

 of gi'owth with few perithecal spines ; these are not a dendroid variety of E. hirsutissima 

 as Milne Edwards and Haime had supposed, but belong to the present species. 



Of the " Gazelle " specimens in the Berlin Museum, Studer has referred three large 

 ones from Salawatti to E. rosularia, another large one from the same locality to E. jlexuosa, 

 VerriU, in every respect resembling the like named specimen in the Paris Museum, and 

 a number of good examples to his new species E. striatula which more or less resemble 

 specimen no. 3 on p. 57 ; these differ from my typical condition of E. lameUosa in that 

 the perithecal spines are shorter, many of them level, corallites on both sides of the 

 corallum (in this respect agreeing with E. Jlexuosa) and almost flat, columella not more 

 than one-third width of calyx. A specimen from Ceylon is referred by Ortmann to 

 E. rosularia. 



There is hardly any doubt that Esper's type of E. lamellosa, judging from the two 

 figures he has given, is identical with mine. 



Localities. Maldives, Hulule (6). Ohagos : Salomon (9) ; Coin, Peros (2). Sey- 

 chelles (4). Also from Australia (Milne Edwards and Haime), 1 Singapore (Verrill), Fiji 

 Islands, New Holland and East Indies (Dana), Salawatti and New Britain (Studer), 

 Ceylon (Ortmann), ? loc. (Esper). 



2. EcHiNOPoRA HIRSUTISSIMA, Milne Edwards and Haime. (PI. 8, fig. 5 ; 9, fig. 4 ; 



13, figs 7 and 8 ; 15, figs 2—4 ; 17, fig. 1 ; 34, fig. 7.) 



7—2 



