THE GENUS ALYEOPOEA WITH THE EATOSITID^. 497 



reasserting this relationship, Verrill accepted the close affinity 

 between Alveopora, Goniopora, and Forites, and proposed to 

 rearrange the Poritidse so as to include three sub-families : — 

 (1) Poritinae; (2) Alveoporinse, iov Alveopora, Goniopora, Litli- 

 arcea, and Koninckia ; (3) Favositinae *. 



To this arrangement Nicholson f very rightly objected that the 

 Palaeozoic Pavositidee could hardly be ranked as a mere sub-class 

 of the recent Poritidae ; he nevertheless accej)ted the affinity 

 between the two families, the genus Alveopora being to all 

 appearances allied to both. 



Since then the Pavositidae have passed under a cloud. The dis- 

 appearance of Milne-Edwards and Haime's Madreporaria tabulata 

 involved almost all the genera which those authors placed in 

 this section of their great coral system. Duncan J dismissed 

 them from his revision of this system with a very few words, 

 leaving Alveopora among the Poritidae. Ortmann § leaves them 

 out of his system, and makes Alveopora a transition form between 

 Porites and Montipora. Miss Ogilvie || dlso appears to ignore 

 the Pavositidae, but places the Alveoporinse as a sub-family of the 

 Madreporidae, while the Poritidae stand uncertainly apart from 

 all other Madreporaria. 



Lastly, while endeavouring to establish the affinities of the 

 Palaeozoic tabulate corals with the Alcyonaria, Dr. P. W. Sarde- 

 son ^ admits that it would be difficult to show that Favosites 

 and Alveopora are not related, but he knows of no proof that 

 they are. 



We may, then, sum up the position, which was generally 

 adopted before the Madreporarian affinities of the Pavositidae 

 fell into disrepute. The genus Alveopora is closely allied 

 through Goniopora to Porites, while, on the other hand, its 

 extraordinary resemblance to certain Palaeozoic Pavositidae, e.g. 

 Favosites, Lamarck, and Araopora, Nich. & Eth. jun., cannot be 

 dismissed without some recognition. In spite of the enormous 

 interval of time, with only the indifferently described Koninckia, 

 M.-E. & H., of the Cretaceous connecting them, some relationship 



* Amer. Joiirn. Sci. 1872 (reproduced in Ann. & Mag. N. H. (4) ix. p. 355). 

 t ' Palaeozoic Tabulate Corals,' 1879, p. 36. 



I Journ. Linn. Soc. xviii., 1884. 

 § Zool. Jahrb. (Syst.), iv., 1889. 



II Phil. Trans, vol. 187, 1896. 



^ N. Jahrb. Min. x. (supplementary vol.), 1895-96, p. 249. 



