194 PAPERS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF MARINE BIOLOGY. 



4. Pontes fragosa Dana. 



Plate 86, figs. 2, la, Dana's type of the species. 



1846. Pontes fragosa Dana, U. S. Expl. Exped., Zooph. p. 563, plate 55, figs. 9, 9a. 

 1905. Porites fidjic-nsis undecima Bernard, Cat. Porites Indo-Pacific, p. 52. 



The following is a description of Dana's type of Porites fragosa: 



Corallum relatively heavy; surface glomerate, irregularly ridged; type 20.5 by 22 cm. 

 in horizontal diameter and 26 cm. tall. 



Calices in neat polygonal patterns; larger ones, 1.5 mm. in diameter; smaller ones in 

 depressions about 0.8 mm.; excavated, but the pali stand up above the columella. 



Wall, a distinct ridge, often zigzag; mural denticles rather coarse, coarsely frosted, 

 about twice as many as the septa. 



Septa rather thick, wedge-shaped, sides coarsely granulate; formula complete. Either 

 one or two denticles between the pali and the waU, two often present. The outer denticle, 

 where two are present on a septum, the single one where there is only one, is detached frorn 

 the wall; it occurs lower than the mural summit and often above the tops of the pali. 

 Where there are two denticles the outer is often at a higher level than the inner. The pali 

 rise higher than the intermediate septal denticles, and, although usually lower, they some- 

 times rise higher than the outer denticles, but rarely or never reach so high as the mural 

 summits. The columellar fossa is deep and is bounded by the inner edges of the pali. From 

 these relations it will be evident that usually there is a slope from the upper edge of the 

 wall to the outer palar margins; then a rise over the palus, but usually not to the level of the 

 top of the outer septal denticles, and a sudden drop of the inner palar margins to the bottom 

 of the columellar fossa. 



The outer synapticular ring is rarely or never complete; synapticular processes usually 

 run from the mural to the outer septal trabeculae. However, occasionally an outer 

 synapticular ring is developed on some sides of a calice. The palar ring of synapticulae is 

 deep seated, and often appears incomplete, i.e., it is so deep down in the calices that it can 

 not be positively recognized by looking downward into them. 



Pali normally in the complete formula, but those before the lateral pairs are pro- 

 nouncedly more prominent than those before the other septa. The laterals of the triplet 

 converge, but they seem never to fuse in a group, nor is there any suggestion of trident 

 formation. The wedge-shape of the solitary directive and of the memhers of the triplet 

 is very striking. The palus on the directive of the triplet often stands farther outward 

 than those on the laterals of the triplet. Their sides are roughly granulate. 



The columella is a compressed, roughly granulate tubercle, situated in a deep pit and 

 joined by radii to the inner margins of the septa. 



Type: No. 643, U. S. Nat. Mus. 



Locality. — Fiji Islands (U. S. Expl. Exped.). 



This species of course groups with those which form massive coralla and have 

 the pali in the complete formula. The pali on the directives and the laterals of 

 the triplet are narrower, thinner, and lower than the septal denticles. These 

 characters, taken in conjunction with the definite wall-ridge, wedge-shaped septa, 

 deep columellar fossa in which is a coarsely granulate, deep-seated columellar 

 tubercle, and the deep-seated ring of palar synapticulae, distinguish it from any 

 other species here considered. I do not positively recognize it as any of the forms 

 figured by Bernard. 



5. Porites australiensis, new species. 



Plate 85, figures 4, 4a, 5, 6, 6a, specimens from Murray Island. Also plate 13, figure 13; plate 14, figure 15, 



of Dr. Mayer's article. 



1905. Porites queenslandia none et vicesima, Bernard, Cat. Porites Indo-Pacific, p. 132, plate 17, figs. 3, 4, 

 5; plate 21, fig. 21. 



The following is a description of tjie_t2£e of this species: 



Growth-form massive, somewhat flattened above, domed, subhemispherical, or spherical; 

 surface gradually curved or slightly undulate. 



