Madreporarian Subfamily Montiporine. 119 
In 1884 Ridley * denied the close relationship between 
Montipora and Madrepora claimed by Dana. The forms of 
the latter which, owing to the obscuration of the apical polyp, 
Dana thought might constitute a connecting-link between the 
two, lent, according to Ridley, no support to such a con- 
clusion, inasmuch as the apical polyps in these types are not 
really absent, but only inconspicuous owing to their multi- 
plication. Further, it was claimed that a far-reaching 
difference in the method of budding separated the two. In 
Madrepora the budding is said to be centrifugal, the fresh 
buds forming below the central apical polyp, while in Monti- 
pora undifferentiated ccenenchyma takes the jead and the 
fresh polyps appear above one another. I shall endeavour 
to estimate later on to what extent this is a true diagnosis 
of the morphological difference between Madrepora and 
Montipora. 
Duncan, in 1884 }, in his revision of the Milne-Edwards 
and Haime system, followed these authors in placing Monti- 
pora with Porites. 
Quelch, in 1886, in his description of the ‘Challenger’ 
Reef Corals, placed Montipora among Madreporide, as does 
Miss Ogilvie in her recent “ Microscopic and Systematic 
Study of Madreporarian Types of Corals” f. 
Lastly, in 1889 Dr. Ortmann §, after following Dana in 
1888, classed the Montiporide with the Madreporide, Pori- 
tide, Turbinaride, &c. as independent families of the Madre- 
poracea. 
The conclusion here arrived at on this point, viz. that the 
Montpora belong unmistakably to the Madreporide, is based 
upon a study and comparison of nearly 400 specimens, 
divisible into some 120 types, of which more than half are 
new. 
The youngest colony that I found is contained in a small 
oval epithecal saucer, 3°5 millim. long diameter (Pl. II. 
figs. 1, 2). This saucer is filled with a spongy ccenenchyma. 
One polyp, about °25 millim. in diameter, opens in the 
highest part of the coenenchyma and near the centre, while 
a few smaller ones open between it and the epitheca. It 
seems to me that there is no escape from the conclusion that 
this largest and most central polyp is the parent polyp of the 
colony, and that the ccenenchyma stretching from it to the 
epitheca in which the other polyps open is, or more correctly 
was, before the other polyps appeared, its thick porous wall. 
* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) xiii. p. 284. 
+ Journ. Linn. Soe. vol. xviii. 
t Phil. Trans. vol. clxxxyvii. (1896). 
§ Zool. Jahrb, vols. iii, and iv. (syst.). 
