TERTIARY CORALS. 63 



^wfio^—MADBEPOBABIA PEBFOBATA. 

 Family— PORITIDiE. 



Sub-family — Poritin^. 

 Genus — Porites. 

 PoRiTEs PANiCEA, Lonsdde} Plate X, figs. 8 — 10. 



The corallum is flat and encrusting, and its upper surface is irregular. 



The calices are small, circular, and either crowded or rather distant. In the first 

 instance, the outer margins of the septa are in close contact, and in the second there is 

 more or less granular coenenchyma between the calices. 



The calices vary in the depth of their fossae, but the septa are always thick externally 

 and thin internally; they are granular superiorly and laterally. There are six large and 

 six small septa ; the largest are connected by pali with a solid columella. All are rather 

 exsert. 



The longitudinal section shows the corallites to be deep, to have some endotheca, to be 

 very porose, and to be .united by a coenenchyma of very distinct cells. The amount of 

 this coenenchyma varies according to the approximation of the corallites. 



Height of corallum |ths inch. Diameter of calices ^th inch. 



Locality. Bracklesham. In the Dixon Collection in the British Museum. 



There can be no doubt about this coral possessing a granular coenenchyma, a colu- 

 mella, and pali. It is not the Astrosa panacea of Michelin,^ which is really an Astrceo- 

 pora^ having neither columella nor pali. The Porites panicea has more lamellate septa 

 and a more decided coenenchyma than the other species of the genus, and it unites the 

 genera Astrmopora, Porites, and Litliarma. The species has no resemblance to the Porites 

 incrustans, Defrance, from the Miocene of Turin, nor has it close alliances with any of the 

 recent forms. 



1 ' Dixon, ' Geol. and Foss. of Susses,' pi. i, fig. 7. ^ Micheliu ' Iconogr.,' pi. 44, fig. 11. 



^ Pictet, ' Paleont.,' vol. iv. 



