is known, seems to differ mainly in the great height of the 

 radiating ridges which there, as here, crown the disk ; here, 

 however, they are quite small, even in large specimens. 



Sarcophytum pauciflorum, Ehrenberg. 



Lobularia paitei flora, Ehrenberg, Corallenthiere Roth. JNIeeres, p. 68. 



Appears to be common on the Galle coast j found in Red 

 Sea {Ehrenberg). 



Spongodes, Carter, /, c. 



Spongodes, sp. 



Rhizoxenia, Carter, I. c. 



Rhizoxenia, sp. 



Family Primnoida. 

 Menacella reticularis, Gray, var. 

 I have already added a few details of the characters of this 



I 



i 



252 Mr. S. O. Ridley on the Coral-fauna of Ceylon. 



thick at free edge. Margin of zooid-bearing lamina plicate j 

 surface of this region even, zooids crowded. Pedicel (in 

 medium-sized specimen) almost as broad as the zooid- 

 bearing plate. Colour, in dry state, dark reddish brown, 

 that of sterile pedicel paler. Spicules: — (1) Large double- 

 heads, consisting of a usually extremely short narrower smooth 

 cylindrical median portion, and of two large strongly tuber- 

 culated ends, each bearing four or five large broad tubercles 

 covered with minute, sharp-pointed, secondary tubercles ; 

 length of spicule "25, diameter of heads # 18 millim., of smooth 

 median portion "1 millim. (2) Slender, tuberculate, subclavate, 

 straight, one end tapering to point, the other usually rather 

 blunt and more strongly tuberculate than the former ; spicule 

 beset with low tubercles covered with small secondary tu- 

 bercles ; most of the tubercles are arranged into four or five 

 more or less distinct whorls, which surround the spicule and are 

 separated by spaces usually free from tubercles, the remainder 

 are scattered near the ends ; spicule about *25 to # 35 millim. 

 long by "07 millim. thick. A few stout few-whorled forms 

 also occur in the cortex, perhaps representing intermediate 

 stages betw r een nos. 1 and 2. No. 1 forms the lower side of 

 the frond and the greater part, at any rate, of the stem ; no. 2 

 forms the surface of the zooid-bearing plate, and extends some 

 way beneath it. The entire specimen, of which I have seen a 

 photograph, measured about 8 inches in diameter across the disk. 

 This in its external form is quite unlike the species A. 

 pachycladus, described so fully by Klunzinger from the Ked 

 Sea ; but the large double-headed spicules ally it to that 

 form. A. murale of Dana, of which only the external form 







