214 PROF. p. MARTIN DUNCAN ON [Feb. 7, 



CaryophyllicB with more than four perfect cycles of septa. 



Caryophyllia cyathus, Lamarck, Svst. des Anim. sans vertfeb,, 

 1801. 



The corallum is tall, slightly bent, subturbinate, slightly com- 

 pressed, and has a base much narrower than the calicular opening. 

 The costas are only distinct for a short distance from the calice; and 

 then they become flat and only occasionally visible, being separated 

 by indistinct lines and ornamented by numerous small granules 

 which are placed across the costse. The whole surface is, as it were, 

 shining and varnished-looking ; near the base the costse are not 

 visible, but the granulations and varnished appearance prevail. 



The calice is longer than broad, elliptical in outline, very deep 

 centrally and shallow at the margins. Some of the septa are 

 slightly exsert, but they do not project much higher than the others; 

 and this is the case with the primaries and other large septa which 

 have no pali before them. The septa are close, stout, and unequal, 

 and there is but little space between them ; they are rounded at 

 their upper edge and towards the columella ; they are straighter and 

 some are rather large internally. There are many septa of the fifth 

 cycle. 



The columella is deeply sunken, fasciculate, elliptical in outline, 

 rounded above, and composed of eleven processes well separated. 

 The pali are higher than the columella, stout, and as large as the 

 ends of the septa to which they belong, and from which they are 

 well separated above. There are eighteen of them ; and they are 

 separated by a space from the columella. 



The height of the coral is 1^ inch, and the length of the calice 

 I inch, its breadth being -j^ inch. 



This description corresponds specifically with that of MM. Milne- 

 Edwards and Jules Haime in their Hist. Nat. des Corall. vol. ii. 

 p. 13. The columella, however, has fewer processes ; but it is found 

 that there is much variation in that structure in specimens from 

 the Mediterranean, some of which have the same number as the 

 Madeiran form. 



A smaller specimen has a widely open calice, the columella deeply 

 seated, and the septa barely exsert. The columella is made up of 

 about five twisted processes. The pali are thin, separate, and eighteen 

 in number ; they have granules with little cup-shaped cavities in 

 them, and are much higher than the columella, from which they are 

 well separated above. They are wavy at the edges. The septa, 

 thin and not over close, are wavy here and there at their inner edge, 

 and are granular at the sides. 



The calice is more circular than that of the larger form ; and the 

 body is shorter. Height | inch. 



This form can be comprehended by studying sections of larger 

 and mature forms made near their bases. There the granular 

 and more or less distant septa hardly seem possibly to belong to a 

 coral which could develop such a close-set septal arrangement as 

 is seen above. 



