496 ME. H. M. BEBNAED OX THE AEFIlSriTIES OF 



families comprising the Madreporacea, this tribe being cliarac- 

 terized by " twelve tentacles (rarely more) in one series " and 

 lateral gemmation. According to Dana, tlie family Favositidse 

 was distinguished, on the one hand, from the Madreporidse by 

 the possession of tabulae, and, on the other, from the Poritidae 

 by the fact that the tabulae were replaced in these latter by 

 spongy calcareous secretions, making the corallam everywhere 

 equally finely porous. 



This juxtaposition of Alveopora with the Favositida? was re- 

 jected by Milne-Edwards and Haime, who expressed surprise * 

 that the Alveopores, " which, in a manner, offer an exaggeration 

 of the characteis of Goniopora and of Porites, and in which the 

 ' endotheca ' is altogether rudimentary," are separated from these 

 latter and placed at the head of a series containing Favosites, 

 with its pronounced walls and numerous tabulae. They accord- 

 ingly placed Alveopora among the Poritidae, while the Pavositidse 

 are jDlaced in a section, Madreporaria tabulata, of equal value 

 with their other great sections, Madreporaria aporosa, Madre- 

 poraria perforata, Madreporaria tubulosa, and Madreporaria 

 rugosa. 



It is worth noting that Milne-Edwards and Haime, in thus 

 separating Alveopora from Favosites on the ground of the tabulae 

 in the latter, overlooked the fact that Savigny figured his Alveo- 

 pora from the Red Sea with tabula?, as did also Dana his 

 A. spongiosa from Eiji. Milne-Edwards and Haime made no 

 mention of these tabulae either in their generic or specific 

 descriptions of the genus Alveopora. 



In 1870, Saville Kentf reasserted the relationship between 

 Alveopora and the Eavositidae, and proposed to establish a new 

 transition genus, Favositipora, for a specimen of Alveopora with 

 well-developed tabulae which he found in the Paris Museum. 

 In thus making the presence of tabulae a generic distinction, 

 Saville Kent followed Milne-Edwards and Haime in overlooking 

 the tabulae in Alveopora. Verrill, however, in 1872 pointed out 

 the serious omission made by these authors, and rightly claimed 

 Saville Kent's " Favositipora " as identical with Alveopora, but 

 agreed with this author in claiming the genus Koninchia, M.-E. 

 & H., from the Cretaceous, as a connecting link between the 

 recent Alveopora and the Palaeozoic Eavositidae. But, while 



* " Monographic des Poritides," Ann. Sci. Nat. (3) xvi. 1851, p. 23. 

 t Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. vi. 1870, p. 386. 



