1 898.] ON FUNGIT) COUA.LS* FROM. THE SOTTTH PACIFIC. 525 



2. On the Fangid Corals collected by the Author in the 

 South Pacific. By J. Stanley Gardinek, M.A., 

 Gonville and Caius College^ Cambridge'. 



[Eeceived May 31, 1898.] 



(Plates XLIIl.-XLV.) 



The present paper forms the third of the series on the corals 

 collected on the reefs of Funafuti, Eotuma, and Fiji. In it 

 48 specimens are dealt with, of which 39 have been referred to 15 

 known species, while 6 species have been described as new. It is 

 proposed to absorb the genus TicJioseris into Pavonia and the genera 

 Mceandroseris, C'oscinarcea, and Plesioseris into Psammocora. 



Genus SiDEEASTBiEA. 



S'khrastrcea, Blainville, Diet, des Sci. Nat. t. Ix. (1830). 



Siderina, Dana, Zooph. p. 218 (1846). 



Siderastrcea, Duncan, Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xviii. p. 134 (1885). 



I have referred t\^o specimens to this typical West-Indian genus, 

 after having compared them carefully with a number of specimens 

 of the genus in the British Museum. 



1. SiDERASTB.TA CLAVUS Dana. (Plate XLIV. fig. 1.) 



Pavonia clavus, Dana, Zooph. p. 332, pi. xxiv. fig. 4. 



The largest of the two specimens which I have referred to this 

 species is a much swollen branch, 11 cm. high by 4 cm. in diameter 

 at the base and 9 cm. at the somewhat lobed and twisted apex. The 

 calices at the sides, which are from l'5-2'5 mm. in diameter, are 

 separated by a dense theca, over which the septa are continuous 

 (PI. XLIV. fig. 1). The latter are typically 24 in number, alter- 

 nately large and small, the primary " scarcely distinguishable from 

 the secondary; commonly, however, their number is considerably 

 reduced, owing apparently to the fusion together of several at 

 the angles, where three or more calices meet. In the axial fossa 

 is a small, low, often laterally compressed columella. The calices 

 of the summit are much smaller than those of the sides, being 

 generally less than 1*5 mm. in diameter. Their septa are relatively 

 thinner with wide interseptal loculi, and the thecse are generally 

 very distinct, the calices often being joined to one another solely 

 by costae. 



The smaller specimen is a nodule 3 cm. high obtained from the 

 reef close to the larger. Its apical calices have 6 large septa fused 

 with the columella and 6 smaller and narrower septa. The thecse 

 of neighbouring calices are thin and do not fuse, being joined 

 merely by costse. Deeper in the corallum, in sections, the thecae 



1 Communicated by W. Bateson, P.E.S., P.Z.S. Eor former papers see 

 P. Z. S. 1897, p. 941, and 1898, p. 257. 



^ In this paper, unless otherwise precisely stated, the first six septa are 

 known as the primai-y, and the second six as the secondary. 



Psoc. ZooL. Soc— 1898, No. XXXV, 35 



