﻿GLABROUS HONTIPORiE. 41 



from growing any higher, they tend to expand into smooth, slightly Tounded plateaux on which 

 calicles endeavour, with no great success, to open. 



a. (Encrusting specimen) Palm Island, Coll. Saville-Kent. 92. 12. 1. 4 



Great Barrier Eeef. |. (Types.) 



h. (Towering specimen) Warrior Island, „ „ 92. 12. 1. 257 



Great Barrier Eeef. 



[On an apparently allied species, M. jpilosa, see Appendix.] 



'c. ^Ramose. 



23. Montipora levis. (PI. XXXI. fig. 19.) 

 Mmlipora levis, Quelch, Chal. Eep., Eeef Corals (1886) p. 172, pi. viii. figs. 2, 2a. 



Description. — Corallum forms short tufts, the individual stems of which tend immedi- 

 ately to flatten so as to form cockscomb-like expansions, the edges of which send off short, 

 pointed branchlets. The basal portions of the stock die down, the living zone being about 

 6 cm. deep. 



Calicles minute and inconspicuous, from 0*25 to 0*5 mm. and about 1 mm. apart. 

 Primaries well developed, prominent, reaching to or beyond the half radius circle, one (or 

 two) being pronounced as directives. A second cycle just indicated. These prominent septa 

 obscure the deep fossa. 



Ccenenchyma shows an open reticular axial strand (which becomes nearly solid in the 

 basal portions of the stock) ; this is surrounded by a much denser radial reticulum. The 

 interstices appear almost solid, but covered with small ridges like granules which closely 

 resemble in general aspect the white edges of the septa with which they are often connected. 

 Here and there in the upper portions of the stocks, the surface is slightly pitted owing to the 

 irregular upsurging of the interstices. 



This type appears to be distinct. Quelch considered it to be near M. digitata, Dana, and 

 attributed to it five specimens, one of which was described as a variety. Close inspection 

 shows that this variety is in reality a specimen of M-. palmata, Dana, obscured by being 

 unusually smooth. The calicles, however, are the same as in that type, and on the older 

 parts of the stock tend to develop thin ridges marking off the flat, polygonal areas in the centre 

 of which the calicles open, which are characteristic of M. palmata (see p. 66). 



Indeed, the relationship of this type with M. pahnata appears to me to be much closer 

 than it is with M. digitata. 



a. Banda. H.M.S. ' Challenger.' [86. 12. 9. 256.] (Type.) 



h. (Broken from a.) 

 c, d. (Small stocks), Fiji Eeefs. H.M.S. ' Challenger.' 



