﻿GLABROUS MONTIPOE^. 45 



27. Montipora spicata. 



Description. — Corallum a small stunted tuft rising on a stem wliicli branches irregularly ; 

 the branches flatten, the young branches are short tapering spikes about 1 cm. long, springing 

 almost anywhere and with calicles right up to their tips. The stem, which is under 1 cm. in 

 diameter, dies away, the living colony being 5 to 6 cm. deep from the tips of the branches 

 to the edge of the dying surface. As growth proceeds the small pointed branchlets thicken, 

 theii" tops flatten, and then apparently again throw up small processes. 



Calicles are conspicuous,, small, • 5 mm. diameter and very evenly distributed about 

 1 mm. apart The calicles appear regular, star-like, with one well developed cycle of septa 

 and parts of a second ; the directives are well marked, the upper one being often exsert ; the 

 calicles. tend to be arranged in longitudinal series. 



The coenenchyma is very porous and spongy, consisting of stout threads. The- axial 

 streaming layer is well developed, and passes imperceptibly into the cortical layer, which 

 is also reticular, only in this latter layer the threads are radially arranged and run out into 

 short irregular echinulations which, seen from above, are mere granulations. Except for these 

 the surface is a smooth porous reticulum, composed of flat flakes, with large perforations. The 

 interstices are perfectly level. 



Tliis description applies to- a single specimen without any label,, which I have found 

 impossible to associate with any of the other smooth ramose Montipores. The rough, granular, 

 somewhat flaky reticulum which forms tlie surface, somewhat resembles that of M. ramosa, 

 but is altogether on a much smaller scale. In general appearance and size the specimen 

 approaches 3f. fruticosa, but its caKcles are quite different, and its surface is porous and not 

 solid except very low down on the stem. Here the visible septa are merely irregular surface 

 granules projecting over the edge of the aperture. The margin of each calicle is stained a 

 deep yellow. 



The short pointed branchlets, after which the specimen is named, remind one of the 

 similar processes in M. levis. But this latter coral differs widely both in the calicles and in 

 the texture of the coenenchyma. 



a. Locality not recordedt [Eegister No.. 97. 6. 1. 12.] (Type.) 



28. Montipora rubra. (PI. XXXII. fig. 9 as M.forhesi) 



Alveopora ruhra, Quoy and' Gaimard, Voy. de FAstrolabe, ir. (T834) p. 242, pl. xix. figs. 11-14. 



Alveopffra rulyra, Danj,, Zoophytes (1848) p. 512. 



Montipora rubra, Milne-Edwards and Haime, Ann. Sci. Nat., (3°) xvi. (1851) p. 62. 



Non Montipora nibra, Quelch, Chall. Eep., Reef Corais (1886) p. 172. 



Description. — Corallum small, ramose, dichotomously branching, 6 to 7 cm. high ; branches 

 cylindrical, 5 mm. thick near the tapering but rounded tips, 7 to 8 mm. thick nearer the 

 main stems. Branches meeting and fusing. 



